Plantex or similar sheeting?

[Gwynston]

We have an area about 180 sqm at the end of our garden that we never seeded. We've planted a number of trees and shrubs, but until those are large enough in a few years to keep the area covered, weeds keep taking over like a jungle which need to be cut down and sprayed. So we were thinking of covering the area with chip bark, and also assumed we'd need to use something like Plantex underneath.

However, our gardener is recommending that we don't bother with the Plantex as it would be fiddly to fit it around all the existing plants and would cost us a lot extra. However, we're concerned that bark alone will not do a good job of preventing weeds. Any advice?

 

[moderator]

We spent a small fortune on bark, looks very nice.
How ever it soon dried out and shrank, and easily got mixed into the soil, so that was a waste of money

 

[Gwynston]

I imagine Plantex would help stop it merging in with the soil then?

Not much chance of it drying out and shrinking over here in Western Ireland - it's too wet here!

 

[moderator]

Trouble we found was that it does not take long to dry out.
We even looked in kids parks to see how they do it (Around swings etc, for a soft landing)
It was at least 6 inches deep, yes you wont need that thickness but we also noticed it too was "dry" even at the bottom of the pile when the top layer was wet after the rain.

 

[Thermo]

use a spun fabric like plantex. Not the cheap crap in wickes or b&q.

It is a bit of effort fitting it around plants, but less effort than all the weeding.

Mulch serves a number of purposes. woodchip will breakdown and improve the soil, unless its on a memebrane. It wont stop all the weeds unless you put a membrane down.

If you use the membrane use pegs for the edges and the overlaps, it stops it rising so you dont get black fabric rising up through the mulch (one of my pet hates on landscaping jobs..looks crap and its penny pinching)

Travis perkins do their own version of plantex which is good and reasonble for price. (youll pay about 150 for enough rolls to do it with some spare)

this place does the landscaping pegs at a very reasonable price.

http://www.jfcmonro.co.uk/search.asp?types=yes&type=Ground+Cover+>+Pegs

 

[Gwynston]

Thanks for the advice Thermo. That pretty much tells me that our gardener is wrong in advising that we don't need Plantex.

Thanks also for the pegs tip - they sound like a good idea. Hope I can find some over here in Western Ireland!

 

[Thermo]

hes not wrong, but most mulches will still allow a certain amount of weeds to grow in it or through it. Plantex will just help to keep down the weeds that grow through it.

 

[Gwynston]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but thought I'd give an update on progress 8 years later!

In the end, we covered the whole area with pegged-down Plantex and topped with no less than 3 tonnes of chip bark to get a 6 inch depth!

It looked good for a few seasons, but after 7 years the chip bark had mulched down to form a nice growing layer for weeds which eventually took over such that spraying was impractical around the fruit trees.

So we've had the whole lot pulled up, re-tilled the original soil and planted grass seed.

So that was all originally a waste of money....