Xref: kermit rec.gardens:286815

"Ninip" wrote in news:QUcJc.19246$od7.4046@pd7tw3no:

Hi all
I am new to this gardening thing.
I have a empty dirt flower bed in front of my house beside the front
steps. I am going to plant a few annuals , a few perennials, and a few
shrubs. I want to use the wood nuggets and black fabric. don't want
to be weeding all the time.
Question is.............Do I just lay fabric down and dump and spread
mulch around? I cut fabric out for the plants. But was wondering how
plantings can get water when mulch is covering the fabric. These are
the big wood nuggets. Any help would be greatly appreciated because I
don't want this to fail on me. Time and effort and money is too much.
Thanks in advance. Will eagerly await your replies.

Many people in the group don't like landscape fabric (assuming that's
what you mean by fabric and not just black poly), but I use it and I like
it.

Depending on the condition of your dirt you may want to take this time to
add any compost or general amendments before you cover it with fabric and
mulch. If you are really concerned about water, you could always bury a
soaker hose in the area before you put the fabric down. I don't think
this is necessary or if you will have problem with it freezing in Canada.

When I did it, I just laid the fabric on top of everything (including
weeds), cut places for plants, put in the plants, and dumped large pine
bark nuggets everywhere. You may also want to plan some accessible
locations if you want to add bulk amendments later.

Read this, the last part is mostly two people arguing about landscape
fabric despite the Subject line:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...e=right&rnum=1
&thl=
0,919549015,919519154,919436706,919498259,91920042 1,919094047,917944077,9
17940791,917748311,915718999,915964570
&seekm=c7e5acb2.0406211104.3ff20531%40posting.goog le.com#link6