Want a weed free garden? Learn how to prevent weeds in your vegetable garden as we tour our neighbor's vegetable garden where they use a weed barrier fabric and get great results.
You can buy this plastic mesh weed fabric online or at a local greenhouse supply. This fabric was sewn together by a neighbor to create a large wide piece of fabric that is rolled up at the end of the year and stored in the garage. You get what you pay for with this material. Make sure it is UV stable. You can see how the fabric has held up in our natural weed control update video.
As you can see in the above photo, if you just cut the mesh, it will fray eventually. Using a torch to make holes for planting works much better.
Some people have asked about crop rotation, and this weed fabric holes have been created such that if you rotate the big piece of fabric, the holes will be in a different place each year. So you are not planting in the same place every year. This has worked well for our neighbors.
Each spring they till in a time release fertilizer and then pull the weed fabric across. It is anchored down with cement blocks along the edges and bricks in between rows of plants. 
You do get a few weeds peeking out of the plant holes, but this is so much easier than pulling weeds out of a open soil garden. Keeps your clothes a lot cleaner too.
The fabric is not great for planting salad greens or bulb plants like beets or onions, though you could lay narrow strips of this between the rows to keep down weeds. I've found its best for transplants or large seed plants like squash, peppers, tomatoes, etc.
Have you used weed barrier fabric or do you have another weed free garden tip? Let us know below and thanks for watching!
Irene S
I used black contractor bags this year... the worked great
I can't stand weed screen and newspaper never seems to work
Randy Huyck
Your neighbor's garden looked amazing, but I'm confused at how they can really rotate crops very well...Did they cut the holes at a consistent spacing throughout and just plant the crops to conform in later years when they lay it out or will they flop it over so the tomatoes that were on the south are now on the north, etc? I can see how it would really work well with large plants like tomatoes and squash, but what about bedding/row crops like spinach, carrots, onions? More info please!
admin
good question. they will turn the fabric 180 to rotate the crops, and they do not use it for row crops, those are planted along the sides, where weeding has to happen. thx eric.
Randy Huyck
Thanks, Eric, for the info and the pm. Tell your neighbors I am especially impressed by cutting the plant holes with a torch. I am always looking for excuses to use high powered flame in my household chores!