Oops, should have told you to scroll down to the bottom of the post " Weed Barrier? " to see the info, Deciphering my posts are kind of like playing Charades. Sometimes I delete stuff to make it shorter, it should of said They, not There, 12 lashes with a wet noodle for that one.

A......

This is what I use for weed barrier/soil warmer in winter time.I cover my veg beds with straw.You can get it around Oct 31st ( its used for H.ween decorations ) I cover it till Spring time.Then I put it in my composting bin.Works like charm..

I see Lowes is adverting a new weed barrier too, anyone tried that one yet?

I've used a weed barrier similar to the one on Lee Valley's. I can't tell if it is the same brand since they don't show the packaging. I LOVED it. It was easy to cut into to plant and stayed good most of the season. I am buying enough to use to set up a raised garden -- one layer of this on the bottom to help kill the grass and weed seeds that might try to poke through and another layer on top to keep out the airborne weed seeds.

What I'm still looking for are the biodegradable clips. I used these to hold down the weed barrier. They look like plastic, but are not, and do a great job of keeping the barrier in place. They are more "sturdy" and could likely be used for a couple of seasons if you brought them indoors at the end of a season. It's just nice to know that if I forget or lose one, it will be gone within a couple of years.

I use brown cardboard boxes with mulch on top for a biodegradable weed barrier. They aren't perfect, but they do work pretty well. They degrade in place too, so you don't have to keep moving them about. I do avoid the colored boxes as I don't know what might be in the inks.

Thanks for the suggestion, Jennie. I have many cardboard boxes after moving. Those will be great for putting in the bottom of my raised bed. I tried newspapers once and they were a hassle to keep in place.

But putting cardboard on the top would frustrate me when I wanted to plant something. Isn't it hard to cut through? And, what about plants that spread? How do you cut a large enough hole for the plant without leaving a lot of space for weeds to weed their way in?

Once the cardboard gets wet for a week or two, it's pretty easy to break through with a trowel for individual plants. I do weed right around plants at the bases, it's more for between plants. I tend to avoid strong spreaders, however I notice that my mondo grass has sent up a couple of new plants through last summer's cardboard.