Question
I have some large trees in my yard that the roots are starting to show.  my solution to this is to put rocks around the trees about two feet or so from the tree and then filling it in from the rocks to the trees with black dirt.  i wanted to plant some flowers there.  my question is, do i need to put landscapping cloth under the black dirt to keep the grass from growing or will the black dirt take care of that?  any other suggestions would be appreciated.  thank you

Answer
Hi Rosie,

Do not put landscapping fabric ('Weed-Barrier') under soil; this would defeat the purpose of it.

You may use the landscapping cloth to PREVENT future weeding problems by first building the raised flower bed and adding the soil and NEXT covering the soil with the Weed-Barrier fabric-cloth material.  Cut slits for the plants into the cloth for the plants and shrubs.  Finally use a mulch such as cedar-chips, cotton-seed hulls, lava rocks or pebbles, etc. to cover the landscaping cloth all over.  This will make a low-maintenance garden since the weed seeds usually cannot get started in the mulch and cannot grow from beneath the weed-barrier due to lack of light.  Water and fertilizers can penetrate to the soil through the weed-barrier so this system is now a classic garden treatment in landscaping garden areas.  It is not all so good IF you want to use spreading ground-cover plants and dense plantings.  But it works great for small potted plants and shrubs you may want to set into a garden area with space between the plants for the mulch to show.

Good Luck!
__ Jim