8 Uses for Burlap in the Garden
Fall and winter are on their way soon, which means the holidays are right around the corner. Before you start figuring out your travel plans to visit loved ones, you need to start thinking about how your plants will be protected once the growing season ends. Burlap can be used to keep annoying weeds and animals out of your garden. It can also be used to regulate the temperature and moisture of your plants to keep them warm, clear areas of land for planting a garden, protect newly-planted seedlings to help them grow, and so much more.
Moisture & Temperature Regulator
It can be tough to keep plants from freezing during cooler weather, but this sturdy burlap fabric can help keep them warm all winter long. Burlap can be used to nestle or wrap pots in order to retain heat. Pots will also retain their moisture longer when they are sitting on it, so they won’t become over-saturated. Lighter layers of covering keep plants protected from frost.
Keeping Animals Out of Your Garden
During the winter months, a variety of animals are feeding, including rabbits and deer. In order to keep them out of your garden, this relatively inexpensive fabric can be used as a barrier to protect your plants instead of wires. It can also be attached to vertical stakes to surround trees and plants at risk of becoming eaten, or to fence off smaller areas to keep deer away.
Weed Control
You’ll be able to spend more time preparing for spring planting, and less time weeding this winter, by using treated burlap. The coarse fabric can be used to control weeds in row gardens and around plantings. For small plants, you can cut holes in it, while full pieces can be used for larger plants. Row sheets can be used for gardens. The more layers you have on or around your plantings, the fewer weeds you will have. You can also add arborists’ wood chips to keep the weeds under control, to build soils, and to offer moisture retention.
Sheet Mulch
Sheet mulching can help you get an upper hand on those pesky, resilient weeds you can never get rid of. Multiple sheets of burlap, along with deep wood chips to keep them covered, can prevent some of the toughest weeds from growing in places where you don’t want them to be. While weeds can sometimes sucker, or run, out of the covering, heavy sheet mulching can still keep a majority of your weeds at bay. If a weed seed becomes rooted in some of the wood chips, it can be removed relatively easily. This material is the only type of sheet mulching that can be covered with heavy wood chips and actually stay in place.
Till-free Gardens
This fabric can be used to clear an area in no time at all. You can overlap multiple sheets of it on a no-till garden covered in a deep soil layer to turn any space into the garden of your dreams. In order for the fabric to decompose, you want to make sure that new plantings avoid tubers or root vegetables, as well as underlying grasses or plants that were mulched underneath the sheet. If industrial landscape fabric is used in your garden to help control weeds around boxes or beds, one layer of burlap can keep near-ground humidity higher while helping to keep summer temperatures down.
Burlap Winter Propagation Systems:
Germinating Seeds
This fabric can be placed on top of germinating seed beds to protect them from heavy rain, excessive sunlight, wind, and animals. There is a loose-weave variant of the product available that seeds can grow through. This type of product is not recommended for weeds.
Growing Vegetables
The fabric can be used as a grow-bag for tubers and root vegetables.
Moving Plants
Burlap can be used to hold soils for transplants or to protect roots. It’s easy to “plant,” and will decompose relatively quickly.
View more information about our Burlap today!