Organic Weed Killer

One of the most useful organic weed killers isn’t a chemical at all…

Or, in the case of our fall garden, “woven landscape fabric,” which serves the same job as a tarp of killing weeds with a few additional benefits:

Woven nursery fabric is superior to using a tarp, as it:

1. Allows water through
2. Lasts for a decade or more
3. Is much cheaper on a square foot basis
4. Does not degrade easily in the sun

Using plastic in the garden isn’t my favorite, but since I already have some extra woven landscape fabric from my nursery business, it’s very hard to resist using it to kill weeds.

When you spread it out, just overlap it a bit at the edges, then hammer in landscape staples to pin it down. If you run out of those, just use old boards, rocks, bricks and whatever other random junk you have to keep it from blowing away.

Some people use silage tarps to kill off weeds; however, they are large, heavy, and not available in my area.

There’s also a benefit to having water pass through into the ground, which you don’t get from silage tarps. As it rains on top of woven nursery fabric, the water passes right through and wets the weeds and, more importantly, their seeds, causing organic matter to rot down nicely while also inducing germination of the weed seeds, which, after sprouting beneath the fabric, subsequently die from lack of sunlight. Win win win!

This is just one method you can use to kill weeds. John Moody covers many more in his book Winning the War on Weeds, which is well-worth reading.

We’re not the biggest fans of plastic, but hey: this summer things got out of control, plus my weed torch got run over. It works great, too, so we’re rolling with it. You could lasagna garden instead, but this does not require getting a bunch of mulch and cardboard to work.

A final note: Most “landscape fabrics” or weed blocks at the big box stores are totally worthless. Spend the money and get the Dewitt version. We wasted money on the other junk in the past and won’t make the same mistake again.

Further resources:

WINNING THE WAR ON WEEDS: https://amzn.to/3PHNC6y

DEWITT SUNBELT WOVEN FABRIC: https://amzn.to/45nmvUs

LANDSCAPE STAPLES: https://amzn.to/3Q2SWDb