How To Repurpose Cotton Sheets For Landscaping Fabric In Your Garden

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Dealing with garden weeds eats up lots of time, especially when you need to remove spurge weed or other aggressive growers. If you're keen on avoiding commercial herbicides, weed smothering is an alternative to consider. Placing landscaping fabric over a big patch of soil is an efficient way to deprive weeds and their seeds of sunlight. Unfortunately, this fabric is usually made of synthetic fibers, which pollute the environment and take years to break down. To dodge these problems, swap landscaping fabric for a bedsheet that will decompose in your garden. Repurposing cotton sheets in this way also diverts them from landfills, improves soil quality, and saves you money. As the sheets return to the earth, they add carbon and other nutrients to your garden and fortify microbes that support plant health.

You can install a bedsheet weed barrier just as you'd install landscaping fabric, spreading it over a swath of soil and securing it with a product like Feed Garden's 50-pack of 6-inch landscape staples. Unlike a plastic tarp, a cotton sheet lets air and water through when used as a weed barrier. This lets plants growing above it get the oxygen and hydration they need. It also feeds the types of microbes that nourish your soil without emitting methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. When it comes to gardening, the main difference between a bedsheet and landscaping fabric is biodegradability. Landscaping fabric containing synthetic fibers, especially plastics like polypropylene, takes hundreds of years to decompose. Many plastics release microplastics into the soil and air as they degrade. These unhealthy particles are often ingested by humans and animals, especially when they creep into water supplies.

Some sheets make better weed barriers than others, so make sure to choose a suitable set for this project. All-cotton sheets work well, but those made of a cotton-polyester blend do not. Even tiny amounts of synthetic fibers can take ages to decompose, so never put them in your compost bin or garden. When possible, choose cotton that hasn't been treated with dyes or chemicals that might damage your soil. Plan on replacing cotton weed barriers the following growing season since they can break down in as little as 5 months. If you don't have bedding made entirely of cotton, you can use sheets composed of silk, bamboo, or another biodegradable fabric as long as they don't contain any synthetic materials. Sheets aren't the only linen-closet leftovers that will smother weeds either. Pillowcases and thin blankets should work too.

Before draping a bedsheet over your soil, remove existing plants and other items that might rip the fabric. If using multiple sheets, overlap their edges to prevent weeds from sneaking through gaps. Then, tack each sheet's edges to the ground. Want to supercharge your sheet's weed-smothering power? Just add mulch. When mulching with a plant-based mulch such as wood chips, aim for a thickness of 2 to 4 inches. If using small stones, a layer that's 1 to 2 inches is sufficient. Be aware that the type of mulch you choose for your garden may affect the results. Freshly dispersed weed seeds may also germinate in your mulch. That said, weeds growing in mulch tend to have short roots. This makes them easier to remove.