Lake Bottom Blankets provide a chemical-free, reusable solution for controlling weeds in dams. They block sunlight to stop photosynthesis, killing weeds in about a month. Easy to install, practical, and low-cost, these blankets can be moved, cleaned, and reused, offering a safe and effective alternative to herbicides.
Summary
Lake Bottom Blankets: For Killing Weeds in Your Dam
You don’t need to reach for the herbicides when you have a weed problem — you can use a lake bottom blanket instead. These are a practical, chemical-free solution you can use and reuse whenever you like.
Introducing the Lake Bottom Blanket
The Lake Bottom Blanket is a fantastic tool when you need to deal with weeds, but you can’t or don’t want to use chemicals. We had one client with an irrigation dam; they can’t be without water for any period of time, so they can’t really consider herbicide treatments as an option. In this case, the lake bottom blanket was the perfect solution.
It’s nothing fancy: it’s literally a blanket that you can put over the top of the weeds. It stops the sunlight from getting to it, so it prevents photosynthesis, and the weed dies off.
A Practical Solution You Can Use and Reuse
This is a physical solution, and the good thing about it is that you can just lift it up and move it around from spot to spot. It’s not complicated at all, although it’s a bit more sophisticated than it looks.
The blanket has two sides, each with a different colour: a black side and a white side. For our irrigation dam client, theirs wasn’t an aesthetic dam; we stuck it white side up because we wanted to actually see where the blanket was. But if you’ve got an aesthetic dam or the aesthetics matter, you can put it black side up so you can’t see it.
Weeds are generally killed in about a month, so if you want to move the blanket and reuse it, you can. You would pick it up and move it around month by month, but if you don’t want to move it — don’t. You can leave it where it is, although you want to pick it up at least once a year to clean it off… or you’ll get weeds growing on top of your anti-weed blanket.
Well-Made, Well-Designed, Well Worth It
The lake bottom blanket is really well-made. It has great stitching, it’s been designed very well, so it’s practical and reusable. Everything about these things is fantastic — it’s even got a little buoy for deeper dams where you want to know where the mat is at a glance.
In terms of installation, the blanket comes flat-packed in a box with the float and buoy. It has channels along the edge for anchoring rebar. You use rebar and simply thread it through. It balances well and gives a uniform weight distribution, so it settles well on the bottom. It’s an absolute breeze to install.
The Lake Bottom Blanket is:
– Low cost
– Chemical free
– Reusable
– Highly effective
The Lake Bottom Blanket is a great tool for when you can’t or don’t want to control weeds with herbicides. It’s practical and cost-effective — well worth using.
Need Help or Advice?
If you want to learn more, or if you’re interested in biological treatments or aeration, give contact us. We can help.
