From: songbird@anthive.com   
      
   T wrote:   
   > Hi All,   
   >   
   > When you guys use ground cover fabric to keep the weeds   
   > down, what do you use to secure the fabric to the ground?   
      
     i prefer not use it at all, plain cardboard overlapping   
   layers instead and hold it down with wood chip mulch, every   
   few years the mulch will need some topping off and perhaps   
   if the weeds are stubborn you might need to scrape the mulch   
   back and replace the cardboard, but it depends upon if the   
   weeds seem to be coming through or not.   
      
     in places in some perennial gardens and around some trees   
   we've done weed barrier fabric or other things (old carpeting)   
   and pretty much it's become a mess that is now getting over-   
   grown with weeds because it will take way too much work to   
   redo it - an eventual mess IMO.  some weed barrier fabrics   
   break down so to remove them means picking all those pieces   
   out.  bleah...  at least with cardboard it will rot away to   
   humus along with some of the woodchips and then it becomes   
   a valuable garden amendment.   
      
     we put rocks or pieces of wood along the edges to hold it   
   down if it won't stay in place.   
      
     we don't have termite problems or fire risks here to worry   
   too much about wood mulches.  we do have the black carpenter   
   ants so i do have to keep an eye out for them coming too   
   close to the house and trying to set up new colonies in the   
   walls.  it's taken me nearly 30 years to get most of the   
   cracks caulked up so they aren't coming in the house, but   
   there's some places i can't get to so ...   
      
      
     songbird   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)