Yes, as you can see, the weeds have already grown thru.

I second getting the landscape cloth up asap; not only do some weeds and grasses grow up through it, they also root in the mulch or leaves on top and root down into it. If you can get any kind of grass to grow at all, even if not thickly, that is the easiest solution, and then you will also be mowing any weeds that come up which helps wipe them out. As floraluk2 said, you could also do thick mulch and just pull weeds as they occur, or do a ground cover you can mow once or twice a year to tidy things up. But grass will be the lowest maintenance.

Another vote for getting the landscape cloth up ASAP. It will only get worse. The stuff is just awful.

Whenever my husband says something is "too much work," I wait for him to go on a long fishing trip and then I do it myself. Husbands can be such whiny babies-LOL!

Definitely get rid of the landscape fabric. Lay down cardboard and cover it with the pine needles.

I guess the reason wants to keep as is, is because this small area is surrounded by pine trees.

That's neither here nor there. Take up the cloth and let the pine trees self mulch. Some people actually go out and buy pine needles specially. You have them provided free.

If I pulled up the landscaping cloth, and tried to plant grass, would grass actually grow out here though? There’s a lot of pine needles and sweet gums (which we would like to eventually get rid of).
I need to make it as low maintenance as possible.

“Would grass actually grow here?” That was my first thought too.

My second thought was ”Well it for certain won’t grow with landscape fabric there!”

Yes, I hate that stuff. It was already here when we moved in.

How much foot traffic does that area receive? I wonder if you need a mulched path down to the lake. You might wear a path through grass.

Not much foot traffic in the wooded area. Sweet gums are being cut down today so that’s good. This is what it looks like now.

Aren't pine needles naturally weed free when used as mulch? We have pines and not much grows under them where we don't remove the needles. Ferns? Rhodos? Azaleas?

Lawn to pine needles seems like a nice transition for bare feet now that those gum trees are gone.

Not our small wooded area. Some of this area (not all) has fabric and the weeds are growing through.

Okay I thought I read where you removed it.

So you haven't yet removed the fabric as recommended?

We have not removed the fabric..yet. At first I couldn’t get my husband on board. He’s open to the idea now. 🤦🏻‍♀️

That area around the fire pit looks open enough that you could have grass around it if you wanted. Pine needles mulch up if you want them to, but you also need enough shade to discourage growth. If you want things to not grow. You gotta get pretty thick with the pine needles before it really starts to smother out weeds on it's own in the sun.