Skip Traditional Landscape Fabric: The Versatile Alternative That's Eco-Friendly

If you're looking for a more natural and eco-friendly way to combat weeds in your garden, you'll probably want to skip traditional landscape fabric, as it's often made from plastic — namely polypropylene, polyester, or other types of recycled plastic materials. Not only that, but these fabrics normally limit the amount of water and air that reaches the soil beneath; they'll also degrade over time, releasing microplastics into the soil and surrounding waterways. Instead of buying landscape fabric, there's a versatile alternative that's made from a natural material that you might want to consider: a canvas drop cloth.

Made from cotton, canvas drop cloths are fairly inexpensive to buy. They're usually purchased to protect indoor surfaces when painting, and they can be used to protect your countertops during a kitchen renovation. However, there's no reason why you can't use them in your landscaping as a weed barrier. If you opt for untreated canvas cloths, they'll allow water through to the ground beneath, meaning your soil won't be totally starved of hydration. The woven fabric also allows air to flow through, which is another benefit when you use it over your soil. These cloths will eventually break down over time, but they're only adding natural materials to the soil, which means they're much more eco-friendly than landscape fabric.

You can use canvas drop cloths anywhere you might have considered using landscape fabric as a weed suppressant. They'll actually do a fairly good job of stopping the weeds from coming through while also helping to keep the soil warmer in cooler weather. Thanks to their breathable nature, they could also be used as frost cloths to protect sensitive plants in the winter. If you like using them for this purpose, you can even throw them in the washing machine once they've done their job and save them to use again next season.

To avoid cutting holes in the canvas for planting, consider laying a sheet next to your planted rows or around your shrubs and trees to help with weed control. This means you'll only have to deal with minimal weed growth, just around the plants themselves. Canvas drop cloths are also perfect for use under any areas of hardscaping. The tight weave of the canvas will prevent weeds from breaking through after you've topped the tarps with gravel or decomposed granite, which is a gravel alternative that's great for hardscaping projects. The drop cloths should also take more time to deteriorate than landscape fabric, thus keeping your paths and walkways free of weeds for longer.