How to Make Yard Fabric Stakes

Landscape fabric or plastic is used to keep weeds at bay under shrubbery or in garden beds. The fabric is laid over the ground before planting, with "X"s cut in for plants and topped with a layer of mulch. To keep the landscape fabric in place, secure it with landscape stakes, particularly where pieces overlap, at edges, and where holes have been cut for plants. Landscape stakes, also referred to as pins or staples, are U-shaped pieces of wire, designed to slip easily through the fabric and into the soil.

9- or 10-gauge galvanized wire

Wire cutters

Measuring tape

Wire hangers

Pliers

Measure out 13 inches of 9-gauge galvanized metal wire.

Clip with a pair of wire cutters. Make the cut at an angle, so the ends of the wire will pierce the landscape fabric more easily. Cut off 13-inches of wire for every stake you require. According to Home Depot's Garden Club, the minimum number of pins needed is one for every 5 to 10 feet of landscape fabric.

Measure 6 inches down the wire and bend at a 90-degree angle. Use pliers to make the bend if you can't do it with your hands. Measure down another inch, then make another 90-degree bend in the opposite direction, so you have a flat-bottomed "U." Repeat to make additional pins.

Collect half as many wire clothing hangers as stakes needed for your landscape fabric project.

Measure 6 inches across the bottom of the hanger starting at the elbow from either side of the wire hanger and clip off at an angle with wire cutters. Measure 6 inches from down other side of the angle and clip. Make the same cuts on the other side of the hanger. You now have two pins that are somewhat "V" shaped. Repeat with the additional hangers.

Grasp the hanger wire with a pair of pliers an inch from the bend on the leg of the pin that has a more diagonal angle. Bend down the wire so the pin is now "U" shaped--you shouldn't have to bend much. Make the same bend on all the additional pins.

The non-galvanized hanger wire pins will disintegrate over time.