Old Carpet For Garden Paths

Therefore a layer of pea gravel would prevent the sunlight from degrading the carpet.

Old carpet for garden paths. Some wrote that the carpet is not allowed in organic gardens toxins can leach from the carpet. I think the most important thing would be perhaps to use a wool carpet rather than nylon as you might find it could have chemicals leaching into the soil. Carpet in general is made of 60 inert polypropylene nylon and polyester fiber with 40 backing caco3 latex plus some organics if post consumer. I dug out as much couch grass and bindweed as i could find some growing through the old carpet that an allotmenteer of a generation or two ago had left horrid and very heavy.

Adding old carpet as an underlayment can deprive unwanted plants like weeds from getting the life sustaining uv rays. Better regular mulch break down each year adding organic matter to my soil as it does than spend my life digging up long strands of old carpet fiber. I put some down 10 12 years ago at the side of the house and covered with small river pebbles and a few weeds have only just started to appear this past few years. 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.

It s an excellent mulch. Each year 500 000 tonnes of carpet waste is buried in uk landfills. Biodegradable natural fibre carpet in the garden. I have been at work eradicating old carpet strings for the last 5 years.

I plan to use carpet gravel for the walking paths in an urban garden between raised beds. As ever i d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below. Hi carole i have seen carpet used as weed mat around native plantings in gullys etc and it works really well but not so much in a home garden. On the other hand it will encourage your garden plants to grow because of the permeable mesh the carpet is constructed on.

My problem is that water runs straight through the garden and weeps into the canal thereby over draining the lawn even after heavy watering or rain with the result being a forever dry brown and unhealthy lawn. The synthetic carpet would be good for paths and between rows in your vege garden. I d use more if i had more old carpet to use. It takes some time to break down and not a lot grows through it easily.

If you lay old carpet over bare soil it will help suppress weeds. It s best as part of a layered mulch with compost etc under the carpet and something like pea straw over it. If i wanted a permanent path between raised beds i would go with gravel or even bark chips. I have considered laying old carpet or carpet underlay with the hope that this will remain damp then top dressing then a new lawn.