[PaulF]

A few thoughts: When we first moved to our present location the garden space in our yard was a weed and brush overgrown area with several,, no, a bunch of trees of all sizes. The brush we cleared along with the weeds and the three or four larger trees we cut down and had the stumps ground.

The area had never been tilled, so was virgin land made up of Loess soil (also called sugar clay) and was nearly devoid of organics. The first year after tilling the soil, it produced mostly native weeds and brush which was nature trying to reclaim what had been there for aeons.

The second year we put down landscape fabric as a weed barrier and grass clippings over that as a mulch. My previous attempt (in a different location) at using plastic taught me about water pooling and lack of air flow into the soil. The fabric we used was not the heaviest available but a middle grade air and water permeable. It worked well but there were certain problems for this particular garden space.

As stated we had a lack of organics and every year we had to add as much as possible to bring the soil into good shape. That meant rolling up the fabric, tilling in the clippings, extra organics in the form of compost both homemade and purchased. Also according to professional soil test results added nutrients needed to be incorporated. For us it was primarily elemental sulphur and nitrogen. I even tried some cover crops ( which in this area was not very successful).

The fabric lasted only two or three years before it disintegrated. The labor to lay down and then later remove the fabric proved to be too much for me. Since then I have gone from fabric and grass or straw to newspaper as the weed barrier and straw as the mulch. At the end of the season it all gets tilled into the soil. After eighteen years the organics are pretty much in line and the labor is a lot less.

We still have native weeds but not many. We still have roots poking up every once in a while but not many. A few little trees show up but are easily pulled. I get end rolls of newsprint from the local newspaper for free. These are 32 inches wide and up to fifty feet long so rolling them out is easy...I double or triple layer the paper. No need for staples since I put straw on the paper as it goes on the soil (picking a still day works best). When it is time to plant just move the straw and punch a hole in the paper.

Over the past 50 years I have tried almost every method of mulching and weed barrier in the garden and the above works for me. Not being familiar with southern California tree roots my experience may not be of much help, but we battle boxelder, honey locust, black walnut, cottonwood, honeysuckle, virginia creeper, greenbrier and sumac among many others in our gardens and landscape. If paper and straw can hold these at bay why not yours.

Good luck and good gardening and most of all...have fun!