ground cover (plastic and such) not plants

[godless]

Ive been using 2mm Black plastic as a ground cover to eliminate the job of weeding around pots, its been fine for years but at my new joint the heat is obviously a lot more penetrative and within 6 months the new plastic is starting to tear and rip and just generally deteriorate. Im looking for a cost effective  (I wont tell you how much ive spent on black plastic..lol) method of ground cover that will stand up to the test of time and harsh conditions.

any....any ideas would be appreciated, bearing in mind that this is what I would call mid to large scale so needs to be able to be done en mass, and cost effective.

 

[waterboy 2.0]

maybe a geotextile l(ike Bidim), or even thin HDPE sheet (will last foreva) would be worth investigating.

[sagiXsagi]

cost effective would be to buy more expensive plastic for ground cover

[godless]

I thought I was buying expensive plastic 158$ for 4x50m, my last lot stood up for years but this new stuff is 6 months at best, gunna get an excavator in and do a heap of jobs one being creating a flat cacti are with 4inches of compacted rock locked in by treated pine sleepers

[godless]

buying at the local so probably more than bunnings, just tryin to  spend money in the community. but will be buying from bunnings from now on and checking the uv rating

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Is your black plastic / weedmat plus wood chips an option? It's pretty standard across a lot of nursury sites I've visited. 

[Zedo]

Yeah chuck an inch of wood hips over the plastic. Would look better and keep it cooler. Much easier to pull out stray weeds if they pop up.

[godless]

thanks for replies people, gunna go with a geotextile I think, covered by 3-4 inches of compacted rock.....when I get around to it, im just bandaiding at the moment. rapidly running out of space in my current area though so will have to get onto it soon. I think winter will be construction time, I keep clearing cacti to make room for sheds and shadehouse but cactus keeps coming in and re taking the space. winter will give me time.