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Every gardener knows what it's like to get frustrated with the weeds in your neighborhood and just want to smother them.Okay, good news: You can.

Black plastic sheets and landscape fabrics are two popular mulch ways to suppress weeds.Both lay a material over large parts of the garden plot and make holes for the crops to pass through.This either prevents weed seeds from germinating completely or kills them as soon as they appear.

However, there is a clear difference between the two.

"Landscape fabric is a very different thing from black plastic, and people often confuse the two," says Kate Garland, a horticulture expert in the University of Maine's Cooperative Extension department.

First, black plastic is generally cheaper and cheaper to maintain than landscape fabrics, says Matthew Walhead, an ornamental horticulture expert and assistant professor in the Cooperative extension department at the University of Maine.Black plastic for gardens, for example, usually comes with holes for crops, but most landscape fabrics require you to cut or burn the holes yourself, he says.

However, there is a clear difference between the two.

"Landscape fabrics and black plastic are very different things, and people often confuse the two," said Kate Garland, a horticulture specialist in the University of Maine's Cooperative Extension department.

First, black plastic is generally cheaper and cheaper to maintain than landscape fabrics, says Matthew Walhead, an ornamental horticulture expert and assistant professor in the Cooperative extension department at the University of Maine.Black plastic for gardens, for example, usually comes with holes for crops, but most landscape fabrics require you to cut or burn the holes yourself, he says.

Garland added that black plastic is effective at retaining moisture, but that some kind of irrigation under black plastic may be prudent, especially in dry years.

"This also makes Weed Fabric watering more difficult, because you have to aim your watering at the hole you're planting, or hope that the water will move through the soil to where it needs to go, "Garland says.In a normal rainy year, the water that falls on the surrounding soil would migrate nicely under that plastic."

For thrifty gardeners, Garland says, you can use heavy black trash bags instead of buying specialized sheets. "Sometimes the bags are lined with things like pesticides to reduce maggots growing and things like that," she says.The package itself should be listed to see if there are any additional products in it."

The downside is that plastic is generally thrown away after the growing season.

"They do a lot of damage to the environment," says Tom Roberts, the owner of Snakeroot farm.You've paid someone to extract the oil and turn it into plastic.You're creating demand for plastic [and] you're producing waste."