Forget the landscape cloth and use layers of newspapers instead. Use 5 or 6
layers and overlap them well. You can keep a hose handy and wet them down
to keep from blowing around as you spread the mulch. Newspapers work very
well at killing off all but the most persistent kinds of grass and weeds,
and last surprising long under the mulch, but eventually break down and add
to the tilth of the soil. You can easily add plants to your bed after
mulching, and you can't beat the price. I"ve used them both to start new
planting beds, and to layer over old mulch before adding new, and it works
very well.

Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA


"spampot" wrote in message
Thank you. That's very clear. I actually have more grass
than weeds under the tree, and the weeds are just chickweed
which are rather easy to pull up. I'm digging the grass
clumps out of the parts that I didn't manage to Roundup
before laying down the cloth and mulch, so I suppose
everything will work out fine in the end. Sure is a lot of
work, though; I'll spend $200 and hours putting stuff under
that tree, stand back, and it's hardly noticeable!