Weed membrane or not weed membrane

kylith

I'm going to be taking the top couple of inches off of an area of my garden and relpacing it with woodchip to make a play area for the kids. I,m debating whether or not to pud down weed membrane under the woodchip.

Pros of weed membrane: the place is plagued with horsetail so this should stop it from coming up, and generally make weeding easier. Would stop the kids digging it up.

Cons of weed membrane: the woodchip would eventually break down into the soil, improving the soil texture (very clay-ey) and hopefully drainage. Would stop the kids tiring themselves out by digging massive holes.

Would love to hear some thoughts from yourselves.

looksee

If you put down woodchip, with or without membrane it will eventually turn into a growing medium - for weeds anyway. Its also not the best for playing on, some of it will stain skin and clothes quite significantly, and it will track into the house and get caught in clothing. My experience is that it also tends to move on the membrane leaving bald patches. Also you have to have joins on membrane, and of course there are edges, all of which tend to come unstuck.

I have never put down artificial grass but it might be an option for playing on.

I did very similar to what you have described. Stripped a section of lawn and put down a play area.

I removed more about 3-4" of sod and earth (heavy clay), levelled the ground and put down Myxpex (I use cardboard in flower beds). I then put down close to 3 tonnes of Woodchip from Second Harvest on top and never have any issues with bald spots as the chip is so deep. I edged to the lawn with cobble lock paving.

It's down six months now and zero issues with weeds. The wood chip is great and no issues with staining. It did get caught on clothes for the first few weeks but once it settled after a few soakings that all stopped.

I'll probably strip layers of wood chip every few years when it gets tatty and then top up, and eventually, when the kids are past that stage, I'll pull up the mypex and turn the whole area into planting.

magicbastarder

the place is plagued with horsetail so this should stop it from coming up

weed membrane won't stop it from coming up. it can come up through tarmac.

wildwillow

Horse tail will come up through weed barrier or will go under and come up around it.

I’m not a fan of weed barriers as they do move but it will keep the ground under the wood chip free of mud which may come up if the ground gets very wet and there is lots of traffic on it.

Artificial grass is not a good choice for play areas. The area Dancinpants has done looks perfect. The trick is to use a good layer of wood chip.

I don’t know what you can do with the horsetail. If you hand weed as soon as it appears and are careful to remove every bit, you will gain some control. Don’t be tempted to hoe it. Regular spraying with something like brush killer will diminish it over a few years, but I would not use spray in play areas, or anywhere else for that matter.

phormium

Horse tail will come right up through weed membrane. I'm a big fan of old carpet at a weed membrane but I'm not even sure if that will deter horsetail. However the bark itself will eventually break down into something weeks etc will root in anyway so will need a bit of maintenance.

okedoke

I had the same plan last year, was going to put down wood chip. Went for artificial grass under the playhouse and trampoline. Only down since March but its great so far. I did it diy, fairly straightforward process

kylith

french drain in, membrane down, bark chip ordered for the morning. Fingers crossed it doesn’t all blow away by then.

I’m trying to figure out how to make a curved bed around the front of the patio any ideas?

I do feel a bit guilty because of all the wild plants that I strimmed down and covered over; we had finches in the knotweed for a start. After the mulch goes down the first thing that’s going in is a feeding station. The bank on the right is going to be planted with blackthorn as soon as I can get bare root slips. Then containers all round the edge with plenty of plants with a long range of flowering times and seed heads (suggestions welcome). Phase 2 of the garden plan is to turn the front garden into a native plant focussed cottage garden too, so hopefully i’ll Be putting back more than i’ve Taken away.

looksee

Then containers all round the edge with plenty of plants with a long range of flowering times and seed heads (suggestions welcome)

Snapdragons are great for bees, have a long flowering period and loads of seeds. Although they are grown as annuals they seed freely and the plants will often overwinter. I have some vigorous tall dark red ones that I can send you seed of if you pm me.

Are you sure about the blackthorn? Its rather a wild and straggly bush - and very thorny - for a suburban garden.

kylith

The bank is outside my garden , on the other side of the wall and is technically the border with The neighbouring field. It’s on the north side so won’t shade the garden and I’m looking for it to act as a windbreak while replacing the gorse and dog roses that were buried when foundations were dug for the wall.

I’ll drop you a pm about the snapdragons, thanks

looksee

Oh right, yes that's a good idea so!

Hibernicis

The bank on the right is going to be planted with blackthorn as soon as I can get bare root slips.

I planted a hedgerow some years back and mixed whitethorn and blackthorn, every second plant. It gives a bit more variety and interest. Note that if it is to act as an effective nesting place you'll need to leave it grow to more than 1.5m if that is practical. Also, it's worth allowing one of the whitethorn (maybe end or centre) to grow on to allow it to flower for the bees (Any section that is trimmed regularly will not produce flowers). Being higher it will also provide a safe perching place for birds.

When you say curved bed, do you mean to follow the arc of the patio? What I'd do is swing an arc in the opposite direction so that you'd basically have a circle lawn in the middle. Are you mulching the entire area, look forward to seeing it develop.

kylith

Yes, mulching the whole area.

The garden and the patio are level so will need to have something to keep the bark off. Do you mean to have two beds shaped like “>” and “<“ at the right and left of the patio?

I was thinking more like < and hold up

I thought you were going to use artificial lawn for the kids play area though so that's where my thinking was.

Some plants I would use to replace some of the stuff you took out and depending on the aspect are grasses, nothing too invasive like miscanthus sinensis and persicaria, which is knotweed family. I think some deep red snap dragons would be great there too.

I picked up a Japanese anemone last week, I'd definitely give that a recommend, also known as windflower (Honorine Jobert) lovely flowey tall stemmed wild flower look that you're after and it's great filler too. I'd also have a few nice potted evergreens, especially around the tank space to give some green wall to that space.

The birds do like to have water in their feeding space too, so I'd suggest a bird bath which is great as a water feature too.

Looking forward to seeing how you develop it though.

looksee

My reading of Kylith's plans is that there will not be a lawn at all, just mulch? If you just put in mulch alongside the patio it will creep onto the patio, as you say. If you just put in a little barrier it could be a trip hazard.

Would you make a feature of the curve and the change of surface by putting in a curved raised bed? Following a curve is going to be a bit complicated anyway, you would have to think in terms of some kind of stone blocks or possibly short lengths of 'sleeper' on end (treat the cut ends) held together with something like builder's banding strap https://www.screwfix.ie/p/sabrefix-builders-band-galvanised-dx275-9-6m-x-20mm/38619 along the back.

(typing this has just clarified for me that banding is what I need for a similarish job, I was going to use wire but banding would work much better 😀)

Yeah I wasn't sure if there was going to be a turfed area. I agree, if it were possible use a few stone blocks to form a lip around the outside of the patio to keep the mulch in place. Maybe building a few planters is a handier option than pots too, it will give you some extra growing room and keep everything contained.

kylith

The scaffolding boards are temporary until we can get materials to build the small wall/planters that will be going there.