04-02-2011, 07:18 PM
I must have some potent weeds, because mulch doesn't deter them at all. I used to mulch in California.
I put down landscape cloth in the vegetable garden about three years ago, and covered it with mulch/bark nuggets. What a waste. The cane grass came up and tore the cloth to shreds. Heavy black plastic is about all that stops these weeds, the thick kind. But I hate gardening with plastic as it's impossible to add fertilizer to the drip zone when it's covered by plastic. That's why I tried the cloth.
I have dirt though. Seems to produce tougher weeds than when I had a lava under-layer. In Hilo I had lava underneath like what there is in lower Puna. I just pulled the weeds by hand. Any kind of mulch or compost biodegraded so fast that it was too expensive to buy it.
I put down landscape cloth in the vegetable garden about three years ago, and covered it with mulch/bark nuggets. What a waste. The cane grass came up and tore the cloth to shreds. Heavy black plastic is about all that stops these weeds, the thick kind. But I hate gardening with plastic as it's impossible to add fertilizer to the drip zone when it's covered by plastic. That's why I tried the cloth.
I have dirt though. Seems to produce tougher weeds than when I had a lava under-layer. In Hilo I had lava underneath like what there is in lower Puna. I just pulled the weeds by hand. Any kind of mulch or compost biodegraded so fast that it was too expensive to buy it.