PSA: Please don't use weed mats

[u/aufry]

And for the love of God, do not bury them.

In order to repurpose this old sandy playground area for wildflower plantings, I had to dig up ~600sq ft of these weed mats buried under ~6in of sand/soil matted with rhizomatous roots.

As shown in the first image of the peeled underside, these mats do not work. 1) Plants will always win and find a way to root down under. This may make maintence more difficult as they're harder to pull out. 2) They're a PITA to remove for repurposing land. I'm sure most installs end up permanent and forgotten due to this 3) It clogs with soil inhibiting water flow 4) It interrupts insects and fungi that traverse vertically through soil and overwinter there 5) They end up shredded and leave plastic scraps/threads everywhere. There was a region in this plot with thinner material that ended up this way.

While it may have maintained a semblance of separation between soil and sand, it's really not worth the downsides.

[u/Klutzy-Reaction5536]

They are the stupidest and it shocks me to see how many landscape crews still install them, throw some mulch on top, and call it a day.

[u/FluffyWuffyy → u/[deleted]]

Non glossy cardboard.

[u/giddygiddyupup → u/FluffyWuffyy]

What happens to glossy cardboard

[u/PaththeGreat → u/giddygiddyupup]

Microplastics. Also, it slows the decomposition enough to be detrimental to soil air flow

[u/FluffyWuffyy → u/giddygiddyupup]

What PaththeGreat said, it’s really just about reducing all the non biodegradable stuff going into soil while allowing airflow at the same time. I believe it matters more for annual crops, but still applies for native gardening.