GARDENING: Landscape Liner is the Devil Incarnate: Why Landscape Liner is Bad for Garden Soil

Here is the problem. Yes, landscape liner prevents weeds from growing. But it prevents everything else from growing! It also prevents ground cover to creep along with the dirt and grow as well. It also prevents leaves and organic material to decompose into the dirt naturally, creating a healthy balance of micro-organisms AND crumbly, beautifully textured dirt. My dirt under the liner was compacted, very stiff and almost clay-like-which is not a usual occurrence in Chicago city plots.

I pulled the landscape liner out of the sections I was going to work on, and I did it too soon before planting. When I tried working with the hard-packed soil underneath the liner, it was impossible. It was damp, full of clay, had few earthworms and just sat in clumps. After I put my plants in, I had one problem after another. Poor drainage caused root rot. I had mold and mildew. I also had slugs. In hindsight, I should have pulled the liner off in the fall. Turned the soil over. Then mixed in peat, mulch, grass clippings as well as mulched dead leaves all throughout the beds, and let them sit and breathe through the winter. Come spring I would have had a much happier shade garden.

So I performed plant triage to my shade garden. I bought a lot of peat and black forest soil conditioner, and I aerated around all my plants with a small hand tiller. Then I mixed in the materials and tilled again. Death and destruction seem to have stopped. I am hoping for a better year next year!

If you are going to use landscape liner, DON’T. Just weed the old fashioned way, and add layers of wood mulch! I will give you an update next year.

Shade garden updates 2019-2020:
Most recent photos below. Dirt is mended, and we have a lot more plants thriving in the beds now. We have used landscape liner to try and kill weeds in some areas for a season. But we only leave it on for a season, so it does not affect the soil over time in a negative way.