Question
I am having a horrible time controlling the growth of weeds and grasses in walkways and bush beds.  I have tried some of the "total kill" products but they seem to turn the plant yellow and then it rains and grows back. If it doesnt kill the weeds it kills the plants that we are trying to nurture.   We have put cloth down in the beds and the weeds grow up in the mulch. Can we weed the beds once and then kill the ground or the mulch beds with an effective chemical.  It seems to be a never ending process and when unattended for a couple of weeks the weed forest replenishes itself.  

Answer
My sympathies.  I'm surprised the "total kill" didn't work.  You can practically spell our name with the stuff on the lawn.  There is what is called a "pre-emergent" granule, designed to kill young, tender plants, and leave the more harty/mature ones.  We specify it on areas that are to receive woody mulch materials, typically.  And, of course, it is not cheep.  

We save the fabrics for the rocky mulch areas, but even they only last a few growing seasons.

We had a nasty case of crabgrass in one of our planter beds one year.  Nothing helped but brute force...physically ripping them up and getting their roots, too.  It was painfully slow work, but since we had already put down a thick bed of mulch the year before, their roots couldn't grasp too deeply.  If we left one tiny root, BANG!  We had to do it over again.  The plants in that bed were too intertwined to try a chemical approach.

I also think there is a cathartic experience from ripping these pests up and seeing a weed-free planter.

A gardener's work is never done!