I’m curious too. My fenced Veggie garden has raised beds. For the paths We laid weed block fabric and covered with sawdust.. had to take it all out after a few years... full of weeds... then used wood chips.. same thing except more weeds and even trees.. impossible to get the weeds and trees out. The fabric blocks weeds from the bottom, but they all germinate in the wood chips and the roots go through the fabric... took all that out this year and down to ugly black fabric

I use old grocery paper sacks, cut to cover. ( layered). Then mulch
It will keep the weeds out about a year. The difference it is decomposing and is cheap and
Easy to add more mulch

My friend uses carpet remnants

a few hay bales are cheap and work well over the aforementioned paper and/or cardboard. Looks nice and you can always refresh it with more. Paper and cardboard bring lots of earthworms. Bonus!