Best way to prevent weeds from growing?
We're redoing some landscaping, and wondering what the best way to prevent weeds from growing without making the soil toxic to new shrubs, plants, and flowers! We've used weed barrier elsewhere, but I want to be able to plant in this part of the yard. Any suggestions?
LuvMyRescue Wet newspaper, a couple layers worth and some good mulch. Did it last year and what a difference it made. It also degrades down into the soil.
ladeevee Thank you so much! Sounds like an easy solution, but this is a huge area....we'd need a TON of newspapers, so not sure if that will be our best bet for this. :( Definitely something to keep in mind for smaller areas though.
can this method be used in a vegetable garden also? Just wondering if Asparagus would come up through the paper? They are strong little.
thanks
carol 
josepcan 
Ignatz 
jdem If you plan on wanting things to come through you need to leave gaps in the newspaper for them. Once down, the paper blocks most anything from breaking through. So, while you could use it in a veggie garden, you have to know exactly where your seeds were sown, or you can opt to plant seedling and just dig through the paper.
Go to lowes/home depot and ask for landscaping fabric. Great stuff and not expensive at all. Let's water through, weeds can't grow through, and lasts for years. I use it on my wife's flower beds.
hackettstownhandyman Landscape fabric has to be replaced after a certain amount of time.
I don't recommend fabric, I only use it for decorative stone beds. But...
Lay it down, then pin it down, cutting around your plants. and then add mulch to your beds, get it from a local place like stone hedge, donaldson's, or tickners. Don't buy bags from Home Depot or lowes. Lay about an inch to two inches down. Keep on top of weeding it weekly. Eventually the weeds will start to grow through the fabric. Once this happens, the next year when it's time to mulch, rake all the mulch to one area of your beds, pull up the fabric, replace it, respread the mulch, and add a fresh new layer on top.
Mulch breaks down over time providing the beds with nutrients while at the same time creating a weed barrier and nice aesthetics. It's visual quality only really lasts one season. If you put two inches down, about a half inch to an inch with break down over the year and compress.
Some people worry about insects with mulch, this isn't a problem if you get a quality hardwood product, but generally cedar is more insect resistant so you can always upgrade to that. It looks really nice especially if your house is brick.
Penningslandscaping That weed fabric also doesn't do a great job blocking in my experience. I have ripped it up out beds and just use the newspaper trick or extremely think layers of mulch for beds I am preparing for next season's use. You can also try the lasagna method where you layer, cardboard over the existing soil, then new top soil, then mulch and that works wonders. You don't even need to tear up the grass. It dies off under the cardboard. Give it a season before planting in it, then just go ahead and start planting.
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