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Garden Bark area overgrown: ideas for low maintenance garden areas?

#1 · 19th March 2023, 9:31 am

Hi, I have a really big garden, which I struggle to maintain. At the bottom of the garden I would like to have a kids play area, so I put bark down some time ago, but now it is massively overgrown. The area is about 30sq m. Does anyone have a low cost solution, which would be easy to maintain and ok to look at? Do i just weed and re-bark?All suggestions massively appreciated!

Thanks

#2 · 21st March 2023, 8:28 am

Hi @richsaint

Thanks for your question. Chipped bark or play bark is a really good low-cost solution for covering large amounts of garden for play areas or more high-traffic places. Cheaper and more water permeable than paving and requires less maintenance than lawn.

However, there are some drawbacks which you're experiencing.

Drawnbacks to chipped bark:

Weeds will still grow and germinate on and through it
Breaks down over years so needs topping up
Can become slimy in shady areas
Can be slippy underfoot if too thin a layer is scattered

My advice would be to put some time aside to weed the area by hand. Given these weeds will have shallow roots, a hoe or hori hori will make light work of them. Then add another good inch or two of fresh chipped bark. Then it's more a case of little and often weeding with a hoe to prevent the weeds.

Please avoid putting down plastic membranes under bark. It's a really bad idea. It prevents all lift in the soil from moving around as it naturally would and prevents air/water from dispersing through the soil. It also takes hundreds of years to break down, and it tears off into ribbons when laying it, which will end up all over the garden for years to come. It's as bad in my opinion as artificial turf.

The best landscape fabric to use when laying chipped bark is simple cardboard. This breaks down over time and smothers the weeds.