"Honestly, dealing with a few weeds here and there beats constantly hauling gravel back into place after storms..."
True, the weeds I can handle, but have you found any tricks for preventing erosion around the fabric edges? Mine always seem to wash out first, even when pinned down. Maybe I'm missing something...
Totally agree with you there—I'll take weeds over gravel duty any day, haha. But yeah, the fabric edges washing out is a real pain. I went through this exact thing last spring when we had those crazy thunderstorms roll through. I swear, every storm felt like it was personally targeting my landscaping.
Anyway, what helped me out a bit (not a complete fix, mind you, but definitely slowed things down) was doubling up the pins along the edges and overlapping the fabric edges by at least six inches. Then I covered those edges with slightly bigger rocks—think baseball-sized or so—to weigh everything down. Gravel alone just didn't cut it for me, unfortunately. The bigger stones seemed to break up the water flow enough that the edges held up better during heavy rain.
Also, if you're open to it, planting some low-groundcover plants right along the border works wonders. I threw in some creeping thyme and sedum, and once they got established, erosion became way less of an issue. Plus, bonus: you get some greenery that looks intentional instead of just random weeds popping up everywhere.
Of course, nothing's foolproof—especially in flood-prone areas—but this combo of extra pins, chunkier stones, and plants has made my life a lot easier. Now I spend less time outside cursing at washed-out landscaping fabric and more time sipping coffee on the porch, pretending I know what I'm doing.
I feel your pain on this one—landscaping fabric is the bane of my existence! Honestly though, I've found that going fabric-free and just using a thicker layer of mulch or wood chips works better for me. The mulch seems to soak up water better and doesn't shift around as much. Plus, it's a bit easier to rearrange after a storm. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but hey, fewer pins and less frustration sounds like a win to me...
Totally get where you're coming from with the landscaping fabric frustration. I tried it once, thinking it'd be a quick fix to keep weeds down, but after our first heavy rainstorm, it was a total mess. The fabric shifted around and ended up poking out everywhere—looked like my yard had sprouted weird plastic flags overnight.
I switched to mulch too, and honestly, it's been way easier. I went pretty thick with it—probably thicker than most people would recommend—but it's held up surprisingly well through some heavy rains. One thing I did notice though is that after really big storms, some areas got washed out or thinned out more than others. So now I just keep a small pile of extra mulch handy in the shed for quick touch-ups.
Another thing that's helped me is planting some hardy groundcover plants in spots that tend to flood or wash away easily. They're pretty low-maintenance and seem to hold the soil together better than mulch alone. Plus, they look nicer than bare patches or soggy fabric edges sticking out everywhere...
But yeah, landscaping fabric definitely isn't the miracle solution it's cracked up to be—at least not in flood-prone areas like ours. Glad I'm not the only one who's struggled with this stuff!
I feel your pain with the landscaping fabric—tried it around my old historic place and ended up with a soggy, shredded mess after storms. I've had better luck mixing mulch with creeping thyme and moss...looks charming and holds up surprisingly well in heavy rains.
