Dear enjamm,

If it's real bad, I would suggest spraying (as soon as the temperature holds at about 60 degrees) an herbicide called roundup. It kills anything it touches so cover anything you want to save with a garbage bag first. It dries in about 10 minutes.

Depending on how bad the weeds are you may need to spray more then once. It also will take a good two weeks for the weeds to fully die.

As for the landscape fabric, I would recommend ripping that up. The principal behind it is that it's supposed to keep weeds out. It does not; it actually just prevents anything you plant from properly developing and the weeds still eventually get through it anyway.

Afterwards, I would recommend mulching with wood chips to a depth or 2 to 3 inches.

If you remove the black plastic, the weeds & grass on top of it will come out at the same time.

For weeds that have grown where there's no plastic beneath, or for those that survive pulling out the plastic (it's weakened, so it'll tear in lots of places), 9% pickling vinegar sprayed on foliage will burn it back, & the roots usually shrivel at the same time.

This works best on a hot sunny day.
Spray it full strength & leave it for a few days.
You'll see the foliage wilt.
Pull out the weeds, & then use your garden fork to turn the soil & turn up any remaining roots & toss them into a compost pile.

Vinegar is much cheaper than roundup (I found it at HEB Grocery for around $3 a gallon), &, depending on your soil, it may help your ph:
its effect on our alkaline clay is very good.

& mulch is wonderful.

It insulates the soil & plant roots, keeping them from freezing in winter & from cooking in summer, discourages weed seeds from sprouting, makes it easier to pull such weeds as you find, looks nice, & eventually decays & enriches the soil.

Best luck!

First remove the plastic, you'll never have super growing plants with plastic blocking water and air infiltration.

Then cover existing weeds with wet newspapers to block out weed growth. This layer will break down and allow air and moisture to penetrate the soil, after killing and composting the weeds.

To hold the newspapers down and block the rest of the light to the weeds cover the newspapers with your favorite organic mulch, about 4-6 inches thick (wood chips, shredded leaves, coffee grounds, etc).

Finally, plant through with annuals and perennials and enjoy a weed-free garden that will improve each year (apply additional mulch yearly and spot weed).

-Kyle

I think I need to redo an old bed. I have creeping plants around a dwarf plum bush and some look sickly, I was thinking[maybe in Fall]when plants die down to put cow manure all over that area,would that be a big no,no. Appreciate any suggestions. I want the plants and too many to temprarily remove.

Unless you're using rabbit poo, fresh manure can burn roots.

I would pull out the creeping or vining plants *now*, before they get any bigger or more entrenched;
they usually have shallow root systems.

Then top dress the dwarf plum with finished compost & add mulch.

One great thing about compost is that it can be used at any time of the year.