Weed matting

**Andy Mac** · 5th October 2006, 09:45 AM

Bit of a bleat here, as I'm pretty disappointed.
I recently cleared out an overgrown garden bed, digging through it and removing as much Kikuya and nut grass root as I could, before raking flat. The intention was to lay a bed of stone pebble, add some sandstone stepping stones and finish off with a few cacti, as its a NW sun trap against rendered walls. Water restrictions and continued drought have limited plant choice now (geranium, bouganvillea, garzinia(sp?) and cacti) and I was keen to please the missus with a Jamie Dury makeover!

Anyway we decided to lay down weed mat, something I've never used before, and put the pebbles on top. So that's what I did, even folding it over to follow the garden bed, not cut exactly to shape...thinking surely 2 layers is better than one.
One week later what should I see poking their bl**dy heads through the pebbles, but weed shoots! I dug around and sure enough, half a dozen green spears poking through the weave of the weed mat!!:mad: They are a bit young to distinguish yet, but I think its nut grass. They shall be laid low with lashings of Roundup, but that would have been the same with no weed mat, so I'm thinking its all a great waste of time and money

.
Anyone had similar, or have an opinion on the use of weed mat?

Cheers,

**DanP** · 5th October 2006, 11:04 AM

I have it in most of my beds and when I get the time, I going to rip the shyte up. All it does is make it hard to pull the weeds up. Certainly doesn't stop them at all. Couch/kikuyu/buffalo just grow straight through it and any time you do a bit of weeding it all comes up and you have to fix it.

As you can see, I love the stuff.

Dan

**Bleedin Thumb** · 5th October 2006, 11:27 AM

Yep, the stuff is useless. Soil will eventually form on top of the mat and plants then grow in that.
Good luck with the nut grass!!! like onion weed or wandering dew, its easier to learn to live with the stuff than trying to fight a up hill battle.

**Jacksin** · 5th October 2006, 11:58 AM

Yeh I agree its crap.

The holes in the matting eventually block so the water pools on top rather than seep down to the roots

**Dean** · 5th October 2006, 12:11 PM

Hmm I laid some about 2 months ago after clearing out a large side garden overgrown with all types of crap, and filled with stones. So far so good. Only a few weeds have grown around the edge up beside the weed mat.

Maybe there is different types, or quality? Perhaps I got lucky?

**JDub** · 5th October 2006, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Bleedin Thumb

! like onion weed or wandering dew, its easier to learn to live with the stuff than trying to fight a up hill battle.

Ahhhhh Onion Weed.... :mad:

Last spring I spent half a day covering over 150 box hedge with plastic bags so I could safely spray the onion weed amongnst my beautiful formal hedge. do you think it made a difference this spring?

Sheeeesh!

**Bluegum** · 5th October 2006, 01:11 PM

There is a poision called sempra (spelling?). Its claimed to be the killer for nut grass. Its not cheap last I heard it was priced at around $180 FOR 100ml. Apparently you don't need a lot of it to be effective and at the price it had want to be good. The weeds seem to be the only thing growing with the drought as there isn't much grass around. I'm getting about 5 catcher loads this time of year instead of the usual 8-10 I would normally get.

**savage** · 5th October 2006, 04:29 PM

I have a fishpond in the back corner of the rear yard, I had weed mat down for a couple of years with pine bark on top, looked good at first but when the weeds started, that was it. Just recently I have got rid of the pine bark and the weed mat and replaced it with black plastic and white pebble looks great and so far not a weed to be seen.

**Andy Mac** · 5th October 2006, 05:02 PM

Thanks for replies, the concensus is it's a waste of time. Apparently the time to hit nut grass is during early growth, so I'll bring out the sprayer tomorrow morning. I can imagine it being harder to pull weeds entangled in the matting!:mad:
On nut grass, it does have one redeeming feature: I read in an American book (set of "Firefox") that it grows naturally around the Appalation(sp?) Mtns and is edible as a nut and also ground into meal. Haven't been that desperate yet, sounds like a good Depression food!!

Cheers,

**plunger** · 5th October 2006, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by JDub

Ahhhhh Onion Weed.... :mad:

Last spring I spent half a day covering over 150 box hedge with plastic bags so I could safely spray the onion weed amongnst my beautiful formal hedge. do you think it made a difference this spring?

Sheeeesh!

Have you tried a product called "brush off" you have to spray it at certain time of year and it doesn't kill them straight, but they don't come back the following year. About $20 for a small bottle but it goes a long way.

A friend who has a hobby farm swears by it so I tried it in my garden this season...so will see what happens next year.

**Stuart** · 5th October 2006, 06:10 PM

I use a very effective weed mat that my Father taught me.

Newspaper.

You lay it down pretty thick, and put the bark right on top. It quickly (with water) forms a tough surface and the weeds don't get a look in. The plants are fine, and after a few years it has rotted, and becomes part of the mulch, so you lay another layer and keep going!

If you do get any weeds, they are fully on top of the newspaper layer, so they have no strength in their root structure - you can lift the entire thing off, roots and all.

The price is right too......

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