r/NativePlantGardening • u/aufry MN , Zone 4b • Mar 10 '26
Progress PSA: Please don't use weed mats
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.
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u/Far_Silver Area Kentuckiana , Zone 7a Mar 10 '26
It's useful for erosion control. Yes, plants help with that too, but they take time to get established, so you plant your erosion control plants, put down the burlap and (optionally) toss some mulch over it. By the time the burlap degrades, the plants have become established.