Do I Need to Remove Landscaping Cloth from Flowerbed?

kruiser · Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:27 pm

Hello,

I am a relatively new homeowner and have zero experience with gardening. I have a flowerbed 18' X 4' where I have just have mulch over landscaping cloth as of now. I wanted to put some ground cover like perennial peanut to fill the entire flowerbed.
My question is, how will the perennial "spread" if the flowerbed is covered with landscaping cloth & mulch? I will only dig a hole wide enough for the root balls to be planted. How will the bed fill out then?
Do I need to remove the landscaping cloth?

Thank you for reading and hope some of the experienced people here can help me.

KeyWee · Mon Sep 21, 2015 7:04 am

Welcome! I am not a huge fan of landscaping fabric, but there are all kinds of gardeners and some folks find it handy. Since I am not familiar with perennial peanut (Are you in Florida? It helps to know.) I researched it to get an idea of your plan. I don't see why your idea to plant the root balls here and there and then just let the groundcover spread over the mulch wouldn't work. But if this plant performs like they say it will, you may just want to get rid of the mulch and the fabric and let it do its thing. Lots of gardening is trial and error, but looking at this plant online, I don't think the mulch and fabric will be necessary.

kruiser · Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:40 am

Thank you for the quick response. Yes, I should have mentioned, I am in Florida. As of now I have planted 4 plants and have left the mulch in place. I will wait and see if this works and then I can remove the mulch.

tomc · Mon Sep 21, 2015 10:07 am

What landscaping cloth has not done for me is keep weeds down. My use is pretty limited in SE-OH.

rainbowgardener · Mon Sep 21, 2015 10:59 am

Should be ok. I wasn't familiar with the perennial peanut, so I looked it up. It makes like a lawn alternative, a dense sod. The issue would be for ground covers like strawberries and ajuga that spread by above ground runners, that need to travel over the ground and then root down. Landscape fabric would interfere with that. But the peanut spreads by underground rhizomes, which the fabric will not bother, as long as it is air and water permeable.

applestar · Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:39 am

Wouldn't the problem then be that the plant won't be able to grow up above the fabric?

It might exhaust itself trying to find a way up. You may need to make holes for them to come up from, then they will be riddled through the fabric... Later on when the fabric becomes a problem due to wear, it will be really difficult to remove without disturbing the groundcover....

Also, I have heard that in Florida, fire ants like to nest under the landscape fabric?

ElizabethB · Mon Sep 21, 2015 12:03 pm

Hi Kruiser,

Warm welcome to the forum.

I had a landscaping business for 10 years. I am not and never have been a fan of landscape cloth except in specific applications to keep aggregate from burying into the soil.

I would take it out. It may or may not be an issue with the peanuts. If it does hinder the growth or spreading it will be much more difficult to remove later.

Good luck.

Looking forward to hearing more from you.