Old Carpet As Mulch

Be sure no pets on those old carpets or they will flock to spray over those old carpets that had dogs or cats.

Old carpet as mulch. I do use old carpet among the fence with pine straw to cover the old carpets but will remove old pine straw to cover nice pea size beige rocks over the old carpets. I guess you could use very old carpet as a temporary mulch and then lift it before the plastic starts to disintegrate but then you have to dispose of it so it s seems much more hassle than it s worth. Turned upside down with the jute back on top it looks like mulch. Some wrote that the carpet is not allowed in organic gardens toxins can leach from the carpet.

For a typical row garden a used carpet can be. Carpet was well worth using though so long as you mulch heavily with newspapers underneath it to suppress most of the weeds from growing through it. Any way you roll them out rugs do an outstanding job as garden mulch. They kill weeds let in the water are readily available and extremely cheap.

Another issue carpet isn t biodegradable like other weed barriers such as newspaper. No weeds or grass all summer. That is why i prefer old carpets that has no dogs or cats. I cut holes in it big enough for the squash and pumpkin plants and just let them grow out over the carpet.

A bit obsessive perhaps but if you choose to use weed killer you ll have to apply it several times. You can t even use wool carpet now it s got chemicals and a plastic backing. There was a thread on another forum about the use of old carpet in the garden as either as mulch place in garden cut holes in it allow plant to grow in hole or used as a weed free pathway. What is the gardener s thought.

To minimize chemicals leaching into the soil mcguire cleans the carpets before putting them near her plants. Once will not kill those monsters. It is good for covering compost heaps where after a couple of seasons it will become part of the compost. I have used old jute backed carpet in a large winter squash and pumpkin garden with great success.