Our lot was originally covered with deep chopped wood mulch which
developed artillery fungus. We removed the mulch and that has
eliminated the problem as far as spattering goes, but with no mulch on
the garden and foundation plantings both of which are quite large I'm
spending far too much time weeding.

I'd like to put a few inches of SOMETHING on these beds to keep down
weeds, but because artillery fungus can stay alive for many years, it
has to be something that won't get it going again.

Anyone here familiar with this problem and have solutions?

The local landscaping people play very dumb when you ask about it,
probably because they've been making the problem worse for years with
their heavy use of mulch. The fungus problem isn't just mine, a lot of
people in my area have developed it recently, so these landscapers just
pretend they have never heard about it when you try to discuss it!