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May 27, 2011
It has been about 6 years since I started eliminating all of the traditional suburban landscaping from my yard. In that time, the native plants have spread into every corner. After a couple of establishing years, native plants tend to come up bigger, thicker and stronger every year. So I was puzzled by one area that had been covered in late figwort and purple giant hyssop in previous years, but was nearly barren this spring. Having recently purchased some new plants, I decided to fill in the bare spot with the hope that they would like it better than the previous inhabitants. It only took a couple of scoops with the shovel to discover what had killed my plants. About six inches deep there was a layer of the dreaded landscaping cloth that will not die. I have concluded that the native plants were able to get started with relatively short roots and appear established, but then when they stretched deeper to reach their true potential, the zombies ate their roots! I am so sad that I missed this spot during my previous zombie killing sprees. I continued digging and pulling this time and hopefully I got it all, but you never know with the undead.
I really wish people would not spread this stuff all over suburbia. The intent is to block weeds, but it either ends up looking like garbage sticking up from the dirt or it gets buried and the weeds just grow over it. It is ineffective and non-biodegradeable. As stewards of this planet we should choose our battles carefully. Sometimes it is better to work with Mother Nature rather than trying to smother her.
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