Hi All,
I have to get rid of my lawn (water meters). I was going to put down a 20 year fabric barrier and then rocks on top.
I grow food in two organic plots next to my lawn. Will there be a chemical problem from the new fabric leaching over into the food plots. (For health reasons of a family member, the food I grow must be chemical free [organic]).
Many thanks,
-T
what is the landscape fabric made of?
if you suspect it won't be chemical free enough you can use alternative fabrics (like perhaps chemical resistant glass fiber fabric used in making fiberglass)?
if it is too expensive to do the whole area then perhaps you can put the more inert and expensive fabric near the gardens and then use the more generic fabric further out.
in sandy soil and an arid climate i think most leaching is going to go downwards and not sideways.
overall, i think the exposures to chemicals are much higher from indoor air, drinking water and various other things used about the house than what you might get from a garden veggie. rinse the dust and bird poo off the veggies and you're fine.
songbird
Hi Songbird,
Don't know yet. Still talking to the contractor.
The concern was the chemicals to use on the fabric in manufacturing. "Apparently", some take about a month to break down before the fabric becomes permeable.
Would you tear up the grass or just put the fabric on top of it?
-T
When we built our raised bed gardens we put the fabric on top of the grass. Fabric killed the grass but the nut grass grew right up through it. We're still digging and pulling nut grass out of the beds but we seem to be winning the race. YMMV
depends upon what kind of grass you are covering. we've used the standard rolls of the stuff and don't have any trouble with grass coming through it, because we overlap the edges some, roll them together, pin them down and then cover with a fairly thick layer of mulch or rinsed crushed limestone.
if you suspect you have very difficult grasses that can push up through your fabric then dig it up and remove as much of the grass and roots as possible before covering. at least then you are removing some of the energy store available to the plant.
most failures i've seen in mulching and ground fabric is when people skimp on the mulch or they don't do the edges right so things come in from the sides or seams. if the fabric is exposed to the sun it will eventually degrade.
in your specific case, i'm curious about how much sand you have blowing around there? because if you do have enough sand being moved on the winds putting down weed barrier and then a gravel mulch on top of it won't work for long, if it gets buried by sand...
songbird
About once ever two weeks we have about a 35 MPH wind full of sand. No where is immune to weed seeds. But, then again, our average rainfall per year (not month) is only 7 inches, so the weeds have very short lives. Well, except for tumble weeds.
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