No matter what size your garden is going to be, using plastic will cut the weeding time to just about nothing. We plant our gardens through a mish-mash of plastic sheeting and landscape fabric (depending on the gardens), spaced wide enough for two or three rows of plants. Each row is 100 feet long. With a five foot width between rows, the alleys, or areas between the rows, can then be mowed with a deck mower.

Other than an occasional stray blade of grass, there is no weeding this huge garden space. Our time is better spent planting and harvesting, than weeding.

Plastic sheeting also cuts down on water loss. Having a barrier against evaporation moisture is crucial to an efficient watering system. We use gravity fed drip emitters, on timers in the greenhouse, and turned on and off by hand in the field. This keeps the water and weeds under control as well.

A small herb garden will benefit from using a plastic barrier for weed control. It is easy to cover a container with a plastic bag, that has been cut to fit, and then covered with mulch. this also has the added benefit of keeping water where it belongs, in an already water-hungry planting system.