I'm in the process of getting ready to plant my veggies in my outdoor garden. I have weeded and tilled the area and plan to put down landscape fabric then mulch (bark chips) over top of the fabric once the plants are in....my question is, if i plan to use a soaker hose, should it go under the fabric or just along the plants under the mulch? Thanks,
Don't put down anything that will interfere with subsequent vegetable gardening operations. The fabric will sprout weeds as soon as the mulch becomes soiled by spillage or dumping from the beds, or the mulch has decomposed enough to support weed growth. The hoses may need to be accessible.
Thanks for your reply Ron, Just to clarify, the hose should stay above the fabric... but should I not use mulch at all? This is my first attempt at a veggie garden and I'm trying to keep the weeds down as well keep the garden clean and retain moisture. Thanks for your patience.......
I wouldn't necessarily mulch the beds themselves, at least not with wood chips, as I wouldn't want these to get dug in and might want the soil to get as warm as possible--with warm season crops especially, like tomatoes the main problem here is for soil and atmosphere to get warm enough for satisfying results. My advise on landscape fabris is to not use it at all, as weeds will defeat it eventually--if nothing else by growing on top of it, as already mentioned. And if you decide you want to do something else with the ground beneath later, there is the fabric, in the way.