I’m not keen on putting landscape fabric beneath mulch in a garden bed, but the whole situation is significantly worsened when aliens beam up the mulch in the middle of the night.
Or whatever happened here.
Can you imagine what is going on – or more, accurately not going on – in the soil under there? Blurrrrgh. One way to promote soil health and support all the life in it is to ditch the landscape fabric. (You can of course keep the mulch if you can find out which galaxy it ended up in).
I know…weeds! The mulch – sans landscape fabric – will help out a bit with that. And if some weeds show up anyway, isn’t it true that we all need a slow, meditative weeding session a couple of times a week? That’s when I get all my best thinking done…. ♥
Flowery Prose 
I still use fabric under walkways/paths, but not around the plants themselves. 🙂
Yes, it works well under paths and walkways…definitely the best place to use it.
It’s exactly how I feel about landscape fabric. I don’t mind weeding. I suppose the fabric has a place in walkways and things like that, but…I know people who’ve covered a whole garden in it.
It can certainly be very effective for pathways, that’s for sure.
I am not a fan at all, it is horrid stuff! When I started a new garden a couple of years ago it was everywhere with a horrid thick bark mulch on top. Needless to say, it is all gone now, the soil has been improved with garden compost and all is well in the world. To their credit, they panicked as the weeds had got out of hand. I forgave them 😉
it’s true! If weeds get totally out of hand, this seems like a good solution…but it is so much better for soil and plant health just to avoid it altogether.
Yuck! But we do use it in the landscapes at work. I am glad that there is none in the garden here, even if it helps.
It can certainly have a place in the landscape…especially for commercial applications where low maintenance is key.
We use it because it is just so practical. We do not have sufficient staff to pull or cut weeds, and even if we did, there are other things for them to do.
The previous owners used it in the bed adjoining the driveway, then apparently piled a quarry’s worth of stones over it, and then put soil over that. No idea why. All I know is that it’s impossible to get rid of, and some of it is not even “fabric”… it’s literally plastic. Clear plastic, like those leaf bags that you can see through. I did use the fabric type under a Timberlite pathway though. Weeds still occasionally seed into it, between the rocks, but at least they come up easy.
I have heard a few horror stories like this! You’re right, if you do choose to use it and the weeds poke through anyway, they have a weakened root system and are much easier to pull. So…that’s one good thing if it is used. It is definitely useful for pathways.
I use it under river rock in our yard. It pretty well eliminated weeds, but some of the persistent ones still get through for a dose of Weed killer. Thanks for the info about this stuff around plants.