The landscape fabric and mulch works for me here in West Virginia. Maybe you could try the heavier commercial grade fabric that I saw at Lowes? I use about 4 inches of shredded pine bark mulch around my beds on the economy landscape fabric. I get an occasional weed that germinates when the conditions are right in my mulch, but those pull out very easily.

Here is a link that might be useful: This link is to a thread with photos of my SFG bed.

I use old scrap carpeting covered with wood chips between my raised beds. Both are free from the carpet store dumpster and local municipal yard waste facility. Much heavier than the commercial weed block, it stays put and has been very effective weed controller.

I started using the extra shingles the roofers left behind. NOTHING has grown thru them yet. Something may creep over the top but that gives me time to get to it BEFORE it gets into the beds. When I see another area, I pick a few up and move them over the top of the new area. Overlapping them helps alot.

My pathways in between beds are pretty well under control using leaves, leaves, and more leaves, each year. The weeds that do sprout are easily removed. Pine needles last longer but I have put down leaves every fall for quite a few years now. The leaves seem to attract lots of earthworms and keep some moisture in.

The roots of the weeds just seem to grow INTO the landscape fabric making them even harder to remove, so I stopped using that stuff.

Hope that helps,
Gumby_CT

Yes, I've noticed that the weed cloth isn't doing a bit of good and is only making it harder to pull up the weeds. I think we'll try the carpet next year or maybe this fall. We don't actually rake leaves but I suppose we could try to do such a thing this year and maybe some combination of those things would work.

Thanks for your input everyone!

Not having enuff trees, I put a sign out front -
"Leaves Wanted". Seems to help.

I put down cardboard and/or thick layers of newspaper, then cover with redwood shavings (I have access to them for free). It does a great job keeping the weeds down. Now it the moles would just figure out that THEY aren't supposed to make bumps under it!

I did a layer of cardboard, overlapping edges, topped by shredded tree limb debris free from the recycling center. I've had a few poke through, but they were actually pretty easy to pull-up.. I think they be at areas where I overlapped the cardboard and it slid some when I put down the mulch.

Good luck! and Happy gardening!
Becky

I just planted grass. Yes, it needs to be mowed, but so does the rest of the lawn.

In year one it was necessary to use an herbicide to get the weeds in the grass under control, but thereafter a weed hound or hand pulling when the soil is wet and soft is all that is necessary. The grass does a decent job of keeping the weeds down.

It also does a better job than anything else I know of at reducing the spring wetness of the garden area.