I don't like the landscape fabric - a real pain when you want to move a rose around, and weeds eventually come through anyway. Early season mulching is your best bet, before weeds get a chance to get started. Some folks have tried corn gluten, which keeps weed seeds from germinating, but it doesn't help with grass. My husband digs a 7" trench around all my beds to keep the grass roots from traveling into the bed - that helps a lot too. The combination of trenching and mulching has worked best for me.

Just a good layer of mulch for me too. The weeds that do poke up are easier to pull out if the area is watered because the mulch makes them much less vigorous and the water and mulch combined soften the soil.

I've been using either cardboard or thick layers of newspaper over the weeds, then put on a thick layer of mulch. This has worked great so far. I usually get millions of those little trash tree seedlings and this seems to have stopped that. I still get some weeds, but easy to control.

Oh thanks a bunch. I have one bed up front that I put newspaper down and the mulch on top. I guess I can save up some newspaper and try that with the roses. So many seedlings popping up everywhere wow. Last year we killed some rose of sharon bushes and one had three layers of the weed block fabric down areound it that we finally got pulled up this year and there must have been hundreds of tiny ros seedlings growing through it. Not trusting that stuff.

I use just mulch also. But there was a time I needed to use layers of newspaper, then mulch over top.

Another vote for newspaper (several layers) or plain brown cardboard, with thick mulch on top. Only lasts one growing season but it not only stops the weeds but it also allows the soil to breathe and it adds organic matter. And it's easy to pull aside when you want to add fertilizer.

If I don't get all the grass and seedlings out would the cardboard or newspaper and mulch smother it out?

I mulch too, but heard good things about preen, so did that for the first time this year. We'll see how it goes..