Ready for weed season? Landscape cloth can be used to keep weeds at bay in food gardens.

As I wandered the fields of our Maine farm before a winter windstorm, grabbing tattered scraps of greenhouse plastic and spun-bonded row cover, I noticed a piece of heavy black landscape fabric. It was in pretty good shape for having sailed across a pasture and wrapped itself around a tree.

We usually avoid landscape fabric, which, unlike an organic mulch such as seaweed or straw, contributes nothing to the life of the soil.

But as a temporary weed barrier, it is more effective than these. This year, it helped me smother some intractable dandelions and blackberries in the asparagus bed. We used it only in the wide paths between the rows, so the spears could come up unobstructed, but even so, it cut our work in half.

In our small vineyard we let it cover all the area between the trunks of the vines in order to kill grass that had come in, then did the same thing for a row of apple trees next to the vegetable garden.

The product’s chief benefit is that it lets in air and moisture (and keeps that moisture in) while blocking the light that would promote weed growth.

Made from the same polypropylene that’s used for rope, it is super-strong; you can walk on it and it won’t tear. We use the 5-ounce woven type, sold by a number of companies such as A.M. Leonard and Johnny’s Selected Seeds, rather than the lighter stuff you find in box stores.

Landscape cloth is like a thin rug. The slightly shiny side is meant to face up; the duller fuzzy side to face down, because that adheres well to the soil. But we go fuzzy-side-up because it is less reflective and better-looking that way — and still stays put if well-anchored.

That means covering it securely along all the corners and edges, either by burying them or by laying down lengths of rebar. Soil staples, like giant hairpins are sold for pinning the fabric to the ground. If left behind, though, these can get caught in a rototiller’s tines.

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Once it’s laid, try to keep the fabric’s surface free of soil, in which small weeds can sprout (this is why mulch over landscape fabric in perennial beds is only partially successful in keeping weeds out).

In late fall, we take up the whole blanket, apply compost or manure to the area, and then leave the soil exposed over the winter to the natural tillage wrought by frost.

To my mind, landscape fabric in the food garden is something to use in a weed or grass emergency — the quick fix that saves the day.

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