In my opinion you would be better to wait for next spring. The weed will soon be going dormant and won't do much rotting down over the winter and then they will rear their ugly heads through the mulch. They are much easier to dig in the spring too. Then there is the problem of what to do with the plants you want to keep.

Right now I would mark the ones you want to keep with a stake. In the spring when the plants start to show dig them up and put them in pots. Dig out as many of the undesirables as possible, amend your soil and replant your plants. Then put down 3 or 4 layers of wet newspaper--only black and white pages. Then mulch on top. The newspaper works better than landscape fabric and will keep most of the weeds from coming up. If you want to plant new plants cut through the paper and plant away

Do you think using the paper and the landscape material together would be good? I have used the newspaper before but I don't think I did it thick enough.

If you use landscape fabric you will be sorry. I have bever heard of anyone who has used it liked it. Use the newspaper INSTEAD of the fabric.

The newspaper gradually breaks down and adds organic matter to the soil. Then you simply add another layer.

The fabric is no more effective at preventing weeds than papers--in fact I think papers are better. The fabric does not break down, it does get holes that allow weeds to come through so you end up digging and cutting the whole thing out and that's a lot of work.

Yes you need 3 or 4 layers of paper. Because of the tearability of paper if you only put a single layer it can get a hole. Besides a single layer is too thin to prevent weeds poking through it.

Water your plants well and water the paper too so you have good moisture for the plants. Wet paper will stick to the ground too so you can get the mulch on.

Because you are trying to renew an old bed, I would say that you are approaching this process correctly. Probably you may be considering doing this now because in spring the grounds tend to be wet and muddy. So perhaps it's really a question of timing. I tend to redo my own yard around this time of the year.

You can certainly take the plants you wish to keep and place them in a holding bed until next season. In the meantime if you wish to kill off the weeds and to prevent new seeds from germinating next season, you could simply take black plastic bags and nail them down till next season. This way, black plastic will prevent sun from reachng beneath and new seeds that fall on top of hte plastic will never take root. It may look ugly now but in winter it will be covered by snow. By next season, remove the plastic, the grounds are ready to be worked. Add good topsoil, compost and composted manure and replant your saved plants.

BTW, I do use landscape fabrics and I only use them in areas I do not plan to add plants -- Areas I prefer to to topped off with mulch. Just a note of interest, there are landscape fabrics now that do deteriorate over time and I have used them. But for the purpose of renewing your garden bed, I would say it's not a good idea to use landscape fabric because it would be a headache to remove the fabric every time you need to add new soil or to add new plants.

Thanks for everyone input. I don't have enough room to use anywhere as a holding bed, any other ideas?

Do you have a vegetable garden? I've sunk pots into mine for the winter.

Then I would simply leave them in place and still use black plastic in teh surrounding areas to kill off the weeds. Or you could remove them, from the various parts of this bed, clear one part of the bed and set this up as a temporary holding area. Cover the rest of the area with the garbage bags to kill off weeds. Next season, remove the plants, set them up in pots, renew the bed, renew teh soil. Plant in place.

Or dig up teh plants, pot them up, and dig holes in that part of the yard, sink in the pots, top with mulch.

Thanks so much for everyone's help!

If I am to keep my plants in their place until Spring, what time is best to dig them up to move into new placement?

When they show growth--the sprouts peek through the ground