Landscape fabrics

The small number of elements that make up our world combine to produce matter in a seemingly limitless variety of forms. We have only to look at the vegetation, flesh, landscapes, fabrics, building materials, and other things around us to appreciate the wonderful variety of the material world. A part of chemistry is analysis the discovery of which elements have combined together to form a substance. Another aspect of chemistry is synthesis the process of combining elements to produce compounds or converting one compound into another. If the elements are the alphabet of chemistry, then the compounds are its plays, its poems, and its novels. 

Synthetic spun fabrics these materials may also be sold as "landscape fabrics" or occasionally "geotextiles," for long-term weed control. They allow water to permeate through them into the soil, but can degrade where exposed to the sun, so cover with a loose mulch to protect them from the light. 

Mulch membranes Cardboard below, left) used as a mulch membrane around nonornamental plants synthetic landscape fabric (right) controlling weeds in a strawberry patch. 

Willow-weaving classes are increasingly available, and can be both useful and fun, but you could make a start on your own with a simple screen. For this you need a selection of freshly cut willow rods, sorted into bundles of similar length, and a roll of weed-suppressing landscape fabric (see pp.74-75) about 3 ft (1 m) wide to run the length of the screen, plus a metal rod and sledgehammer to make holes, and pruning shears and twine. 

A growing use for spunbond fabrics is in landscaping where hghtweight (eg, 70-100 gsm) fabrics are sold as landscape fabrics for weed control. Typically these fabrics are placed in landscape beds over the soil and covered with stones or mulch where they resist the emergence of weeds from the soil while allowing water to drain through into the soil. They will not, however, prevent seed germination in the mulch, and they should be viewed as only a partial solution for weed control. 

The use of landscaping fabric has become extremely popular in recent years for many reasons leisure time is maximized, and the need for weeding and on-going maintenance is minimized it is environmentally friendly, so there is no need for chemical based weed killers and it promotes healthier plants it allows the soil to breath and water to permeate. For most domestic application, mass per unit area is 1.9 oz/yd, and commercial landscape, 60—70 gsm have high puncture resistance. 

Martin, C. A., Ponder, H. G., Gilliam, C. H. (1991). Evaluation of landscape fabrics in suppressing growth of weed species. Journal of Environmental Horticulture, 9(1), 38—40. 

Light-Duty Recreational Surfaces. Artificial surfaces intended for incidental recreational use, eg, swimming pool decks, patios, and landscaping, are designed primarily to provide a practical, durable, and attractive surface. Minimum cost is a prime consideration and has driven the quaUty of some such products to a low level. Most surfaces in this category utilize polypropylene ribbon and a tufted fabric constmction (see Olefin polymers, polypropylene). ... 

First, roll out the fabric and secure it, either by digging it into the ground or by tacking it down with large landscaping staples. 

The scientific basis of our work is elaborately described in The Invisible Landscape. That work represented our considered, composite opinion as of 1975. Since then these ideas have been much revised as the myths and fallacies spun into the fabric of their first conception have been separated out.]... 

Looking at the research landscape on resistive heating textiles, some researchers concentrated on heat generation of polypyrrole-coated fabrics of different origins, such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (Hakansson et al., 2004 Shang et al., 2010) or cotton (Bhat et al., 2006). Metallized or metal-based yarns, such as... 

In the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution accelerated the rate of technological innovation in profound ways. Awareness of the aesthetic value of the natural landscape deepened as whole cultures and biological species disappeared in the wake of rapid urbanization, progressive conservation, and the colonization of the wilderness. Advances in urbanization the consumption of fossil fuels the mass fabrication of commodities the mechanization of agriculture the transformation of wetlands and deserts into vast farmlands the unregulated extraction of minerals, metals, and inorganic materials for industrial expansion increased demands for hydroelectric... 

CL Chemical Fibers Spunbond fabrics Medical applications, shopping bags and landscape textiles... 

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