Use thick layers of cardboard or newspaper. Then your mulch. This will feed your soil and is easy to replace over time.

That fabric is a nightmare to remove after everything has rooted in, and through, it. Which it will... faster then you think.

yep..cardboard or newspaper..the weed control fabrics are trash..

Ditto, nix the fabric. I found it hard to get large amounts of cardboard that didn't have tape all over it, and in this digital age, never buy a newspaper. I roll out brown builders paper before I mulch when I'm preparing a new bed. It's pretty cheap, and a couple thicknesses take quite a while to break down.

I use cardboard after I've soaked it and gotten it all limp and wet so it wrangles into place easier. Then that tape just pulls off easily if it gets bothersome. Also, the big honkin boxes I got from restaurants needed too much trimmin for my small garden, so I like the ones from the hospital - easier to position around the plants and easier to poke the shovel through when planting, especially when they're wet.

But now, the builder's paper sounds like the easier way to go! So much easier to store your excess til next garden, too. (Something I have to consider, living in a trailer park.)

Anyways, I put the damp cardboard down right on top of the grass. I used to bust my butt digging it all up first, but I think that makes more weeds to sprout in the days to come. As long as I made sure to overlap the flattened boxes and there were no "cracks", the grass fades away into the dirt.

This method was posted here and I am so thankful.
Friends don't let friends use landscape fabric.

Susie

Regardless of what you put on the ground, the weeds are going to come from above. Wind carries small weed seed that will grow in the cracks of concrete just as well as it will grow on top of your weed barrier.

I use 6 mil. plastic under scraps of carpet - works like a charm and is cheap.

For control, an initial layer of cardboard maintained with leaves/mulch/compost should work well. Since it will decompose, it does not need to be removed and will not cause issues with tangled roots later.

If that's not strong enough for initial death via smothering for a spot of existing growth, plastic, sheet metal, a baby pool, bucket, bag of mulch you will put there later, rock, whatever fits the situation/size/stuff you have available, may be needed. Once the weeds are dead, I would remove the smother and add mulch. Then it's easy to pull sprouts when you see them. The ground will remain much less compacted, more moist, more well-drained over time.

If I put scraps of carpet on the ground here, they would soon turn into black blobs of mildew. Not sure what the point of controlling weeds with plastic would be since "the good plants" would soon die of dessication. Also, compost would be unable to reach the soil/roots. I would wonder about what chemicals might come from decomposing carpet if I had edibles near (or in the zone where rain flows from) it.

I want to thank everyone who took time to answer my question and for giving me valuable advice.

Thanks,
S