Man weeding a border (stock image) (Image: Getty)
You head to the garden centre, pick up some lovely plants for spring, tidy up your borders and watch the fruits of your labour grow. It’s all fabulous until one problem rears its little green head – weeds. The pesky and determined plants don’t half have the habit of making borders and gravel areas look untidy, and there’s only so much reaching for a trowel and a bin bag you can do before it starts to get really tiring. While chemical weedkillers often do a sound job of eliminating them, they come with the risk of damaging other beautiful plants in close proximity.
But there’s another solution that can banish weeds completely, without the faff of chemical spray bottles – If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s basically a sheet that goes on the ground and can be covered with the likes of gravel for a neat finish.
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Gardening Express stocks a It might sound expensive but that’s a big roll that’s capable of covering a lot of ground. If you’re looking to cover a smaller area then Amazon stocks priced at a wallet-friendly £30.68.
And if you need even less than that, cheaper still, is £14.98.
You might be thinking that using the fabric stops water and nutrients from getting through to the ground below, but crucially it’s specially designed to let them through to the soil below and have no effect on your beautiful plants. Gardening Express says: “ is constructed from high-quality materials that are designed to last for years. Our weed membrane is made from tough and durable fabric and can withstand heavy foot traffic, garden equipment, and extreme weather conditions.”
Gardening Express weed membrane (Image: Gardening Express)
The product is also resistant to UV rays, so it won’t break down if exposed to sunlight. It’s worth pointing out that it appears that the product isn’t supplied with pegs to hold it down, so you’ll need to pick up some of them – a .
The one review left to date said: “Good, easy to lay, suppressing membrane which seems to be very effective with a layer of gravel on top. Very pleased with this as we will not have to spend hours weeding.”