Yes, I have used the horsehair carpet padding in my rose gardens. I would not use it in a garden in which I was growing things to eat as the padding "may" be treated with a dangerous preservative. I say "may" as I really do not know, but it would not surprise me that there was a dangerous preservative applied.

I have used it affectively. I have also used that green indoor/outdoor carpet.

Any idea what materials it is made out of?

Indoor/outdoor carpet. another use!

If you have a noise issue in your garden, build a fence with boards on both sides AND in between (under one of the sides)tack up new or old indoor/outdoor carpet. It reduces noise by 90%. Noise was always an issue for us until we read about this novel solution. The last few years have been great with much less neighborhood and traffic noise.

Almost any carpet installer will be glad to have you haul awy the old carpet for free.

The padding im using is foam (looks more like chopped up foam that was mashed together).

Im not too worried about it affecint surrounding plants. I use it next to Privets and they seem to dont mind it. Im just trying to create a pathway that wont allow weeds (or mud) to seep through.
Paula

Hi RAHeart,
I did it in my Mass. garden and am so glad I did. It was the only thing that would keep down the invasive grape vines that grow like crazy. It's made my garden path between two beds navicable (sp) and the mulch on top is nice and soft. Beware of weeds that somehow get started on top of the carpeting!!! They are hum dingers to pull out!
Good luck. Deb

A word of caution, a lot of creepy crawlies like to live under stuff like carpet padding.
Sometimes that's good (earthworms) sometimes bad (grubs). And sometimes things that like to eat creepy crawlies (like moles and voles and snakes) will be attracted to the buffet. We accidentally created a HUGE mole problem in our yard this way.

And my family thought I was nuts!!! It's the ultimate recycle!!! By the way, why use only the padding?!?!? My back hill was a hill of shale rock intermingled with sticker bushes, wild strawberries, poison sumac... These went right through normal weed barriers. Starting about 5 years ago, as we redid each room in the house, I layed out the padding and carpet on the hill and bark mulched over it. Two years ago, and the last room done, I now had a mulched garden 130 foot long and about 40 foot wide. So I simply pulled back some munch, cut a hole in the carpet and planted perennials.

Besides the bark becoming compost, I also add some dirt around the roots as we plant. We now have a very large and nice perennial garden!! The bigger bushes, like buddehia, I cut bigger holes through the carpet and its major root systems do work under the carpet, finding some pocket of dirt within the shale and do fine. Never saw anymore of those nasty sticker bushes, or sumac.

In one section, I added about 1" of top soil and planted grass seed for a path. Grass grew fine. When you walk the path, it even feels a little "cushy"!

Many of my family thought I was nuts.. But it really worked great!!! I think it even warms up earlier than normal because of all the rock underneath, and stays warmer later into the winter so I get growth earlier and longer, possibly extending my season....

Wayne