Question
hello.  I live on a very very steep hill.  when i bought the home 2 years ago, the front was full of bushes in bloom.  Last year, as part of some landscaping we had done to the backyard (retaining wall put in) the landscaper ripped up some overgrown bushes and mulched the entire area.  however, he never put down the rubber sheath under the mulch.  now that my area is in heavy rains i have weeds EVERYWHERE!!! MY husband says its too much for us to do (about 150 sq.ft) but i was thinking of digging up the area with the weeds, putting the rubber sheath down and then adding mulch back.  what do you think?
V


Answer
V,

Talking about landscape fabric is one of my favorite topics.  

The fabrics will prevent weed seed already in the soil, and believe me our soils are FULL of weed seed, from germinating and growing in our garden beds.  And since we do not like looking at the fabric we apply mulch.  The mulch conserves moisture and is aesthetically pleasing.

However, weed seed blow onto the mulch and germinate resulting in weeds growing where landscape fabric is used.

My recommendation, and many folks do not like this, is not to use the landscape fabric.  I would rather use a pre-emerge herbicide in the early spring or if you do not want to use chemicals to hand weed.  

As long as you remove the weeds before they set seed the amount of weeds will decrease as the seed bank decreases.  

I hope this helps.

Gary