I'm gearing up to mulch a couple of landscaping beds and put down some rock in another area. There's some weed growth and a few leaves scattered around. I'm wondering if I should spray the weeds or just cut them down and cover them with mulch. Can I leave the leaves as they are, or should I clear them out even though I think they might add good compost value? Also, for the rock bed, I'm planning to use fabric to prevent the rocks from sinking and add a small plastic border to keep them from rolling into the lawn. Any advice on this would be super helpful!
2 Answers
Smothering the weeds with mulch works well! Just keep in mind that some taproot types might push through the mulch eventually, but you can easily pull those out when it happens. It's perfectly fine to leave everything in the beds for decomposition, including the leaves.
Using a layer of newspaper before the mulch can really help prevent weeds. Just be sure to overlap the sheets and use biodegradable paper (nothing glossy!). If the area is large, consider buying mulch by the truckload instead of individual bags. I personally put down cardboard under mine, but it takes a while to break down. I still deal with some aggressive crabgrass, but pulling that out is a breeze. How big is the space you're planning to mulch?
It's a pretty big area, I estimate I might need around 75 bags of mulch.