"nswong" wrote in news:2l7av9F97tkbU1@uni-
berlin.de:

For those really lazy guy, that neglect a corner of garden and let
small bush or tree grow on top of the landscape fabric, I can't
imagine how they will going to separate the landscape fabric from the
mulch(humus) on top, soil below, and plant in between. g

I find the idea that anyone wuuld let a tree or bush grow on and through
landscape fabric ridiculous. I neglect my flower beds for months because
they don't need maintenance. After several months, I get a handful of
large weeds (hand sized or smaller) that are easily removed. In any
event, if someone were to let a tree or shrub grow through the landscape
fabric and the plant does not come out easily, it should be a simple
matter to slide the mulch aside, cut a circle in the fabric around the
bush and pry it out with a mattock, then cut another piece of fabric to
patch the hole or plant something else in the opening. Aside from that,
I suggested landscape fabric for use in a flower bed, not the corner of a
garden. If you've got particularly invasive plants around your flower
bed, you've got bigger problems that neither landscape fabric nor mulch
will solve.

I don't think it is a matter of what is 'correct' but what is the best
solution to a given problem.

I'm agree with you that there is no single way for every situation.

But 'correct' here I'm refer to the claim are true to the fact.

No matter how correct your facts are, if they aren't applicable, then it
does not matter if they are true or not.

I'm also not an expert to say for sure, but
for your operation, extensive mulch seems a better idea, and more
practical.

This still need another few years to test it out when some new need
come in. Maybe by the time another alternative fit better than mulch.
I'm also looking at live mulch(ground cover) now.

At this point I'm not sure what you are referring to.

I don't generate enough vegetation to be able to supply myself with
mulch or significant amounts of compost, so I use newspaper or fabric.

I test out that Perennial peanut(Arachis) work well as live mulch
here.

It grow low, can grow under shading, not appear to compete with crop
plant, do suppress weed germinate from seed, decaying dead root do
provide organic matter and nutrient. It make available by exchange
carbon for N and P with bacterial(N) and fungus(P).

Weed that grow through the live mulch can be weeded by handheld string
trimmer or sickle.

Additionally, were I to add amendments, I find sliding large pine bark
nuggets aside and lifting the fabric (feeder roots smeeder roots) an
easier procedure than raking aside mulch that is possibly conmingled
with newspaper and soil debris.

I don't see the need to raking aside mulch, I will just top dressing
the amendments.

For a flower bed that needs to be visually appealing, I think it is
important to put amendments under the mulch. Depending on nitrogen
content, you may also want to bury them to avoid volatilization.

If I were to use short term mulch (i.e. not as long lasting as large
pine bark nuggets), newspaper might be a better
idea, as I could just mix everything together and enrich the soil
structure by doing so.

As long as you don't over mulch, the mulch will find it way to soil by
critter live in it.

Having reviewed some of the older messages about landscape fabric, if
you're going to grow vegetation that will eventually spred over a
flower bed (making removal of landscape fabric more difficult), it
really doesn't make sense to use long term weed suppression, as once
established, theoretically, the vegetation should be effective in
limiting weed growth to acceptable levels. Certainly in this case you
would want to use something that degrades, replacing as necessary
until the relevant plant is established and doing its own weed
control,

I think people call this vegetation as ground cover or live mulch
depend on situation.

When I wrote that i wasn't thinking of groundcovers as much as a low
shrub with wide sunblocking canopy. I don't know if that qualifies as a
'groundcover'. The problems I have with groundcovers (such a creeping
groundcover), aside from ignorance and cheapness, is there is a potential
to create a diverse microcosm in your flower bed. So in addition to
'soil critters' you have created another layer of habitat for whatever
insects or animals that move in and the other plants you have (barring
any symbiosis) will have to compete with the groundcover. If you don't
know what you are doing, there is the potential for many problems, hence
the need for 'people who can garden their way out of a bank vault'.

the
exception being if said vegetation will die back in the winter, in
which case you can plan your amending accordingly and/or resign
yourself to using short term suppression or other methods.

I will suggest using plant debris for supplement in this situation.

Any plant debris I have either goes in the garbage or compost pile for
the vegetable garden.