Newspapers will decay and act as a soil ammendment. Landscaping fabric will not. When you want to add/move plants you have to cut through the fabric. Any mulch added, as well as normal debris, will accumulate and over time you might have several inches over the fabric which will create more problems finding the cloth to cut through. It seems easy when you start but eventually it becomes a nightmare. And yes, I am speaking from experience. If you aren't careful, it can also choke perennials as the grow and expand over the years. Thumbs down on the landscape fabric.
Cindy

Landscape fabric is pure evil! Weeds just end up growing on top and through it. Plus the roots of your plants will grow in and through it causing a tangled mess. It also causes problems with watering, and suffocates your soil and earthworms.

I echo the above. Also, one of the benefits of a natural mulch is that it feeds the soil. Landscape fabric prevents that.

tj

I'm tearing some more landscape cloth out this week - you don't want it.

Paul

What they said. I worked in a landscape/nursery business for years and I was instrumental in helping put down landscape cloth, but that was before I knew better. I would NEVER use the stuff now, after having had experience with it after the fact. Hate it. I always use newspaper, and I love the results.

Besides, having used newspapers for years with my rocky, hard Ozark soil, I find that the the soil is softer underneath and easier to dig after they have been down for a while and begun to decay. They seem to act kind of the same way as cotton burr compost, which softens the soil as well as being a great soil amendment and mulch.

The ONLY time I ever tell anyone to think about cloth is if you're putting in shrubs and stone and NEVER plan on EVER putting anything else in.

Cloth on a perennial bed is of the devil. It's aweful.
I removed mine within the same year.

And there is NOTHING worse than removing a thistle that growths THRU landscape fabric!

It still surprises me that they sell the stuff. I guess it makes sense for between sand and rock when putting in a new rock boarder. I spent an entire summer removing heavy plastic the previous owner had used for "cloth". It was so sad to find the roots of all the hosta and shrubs sitting on top of the soil just under the plastic. At least I see SOME landscape shows saying out loud to add mulch but forget the fabric!! I use newspaper in my vegetable garden before I heavily mulch with grass clippings. I never have weeds, and the paper is long gone before the end of the season. Years ago the ink took care of unwanted bugs too. I really do not get the point of fabric, except to keep rock from sinking into dirt. It doesn't prevent weeds..that is the biggest false statement ever perpetrated.

I have used newspapers rather than fabric for many years and think it is great. I am surprised that no one has mentioned how worms love to munch on the layer that contacts the soil. Refering to Mosswitches hard Ozark soil, after a couple of years using newspapers, with straw to keep it in place during winds, on my raised tomato and pepper beds (filled with the same hard Ozark soil), in spring I could actually plunge my hand into it BEFORE hand cultivating the soil.

Do you users of newspapers hand shred it before laying it down to help water penetration?

Three years ago my daughters bought me a huge roll of fabric. I had some problems and couldn't prep my garden, and I have no way of knowing what the brand is. It biodegrades and I put down new fabric every spring, turning most of the old into the soil. It works just like newspapers. But I like the idea of recyling the old papers.

Les

let me put it this way...

if you are planning on burying plastic in the garden.. just go with plastic plants also ...

most weeds have airborne seed.. one minute after you put down the LC.. there will be seeds on top ... and then you will find.. they can root thru.. but you cant pull them out ...

PLEASE DONT DO IT

ken

Some great info, i had never known there was such an anti landscape mat argument... Sometimes its good to ask ! ;)

If you need another who has dug and ripped the stuff out....I'll raise my hand too....and I feel the same way about rock mulch, particularly that white limestone and that red brick colored stuff.
Once I took some hosta to my son's new...well new to them....house. The place they wanted the hosta was filled with crushed white rock, weeds....and under all the evil fabric. I raked out the rock, found the landscape fabric with the weeds imbedded, ripped it out, cutting as I went...dug some compost into the spot, planted the hosta and mulched with fine bark.
2 years alter, they sold the house....sold it in about an hour....due I am sure to the beautiful hosta!!....and the next spring the new owners tore it all out, replaced the fabric and that awful white rock!! AARGH!!!!

I echo everything said on here. I have also used cardboard to instead of newspaper.
Jen

Would brown paper bags work as well as newspaper?

I also ditto everything said about the evil weed paper! I am still trying to cut and pull out paper laid over ten years ago. Everything everyone has said above is TRUE.

I used landscape cloth to delineate the flood path through my garden, and then I covered it with large gravel. Weeds do grow, but the gravel does not disappear into the mud. I am satisfied with the results. I agree with everyone above that landscape cloth does not belong in the garden bed. I am intrigued by the newspaper or cardboard box ideas. Cool.