Really, any kind of garden style that keeps the soil from being exposed (to light) is going to discourage weeds. And plants that are packed in have roots that fill the soil and make it more difficult for new plants to thrive.

Also, the longer and more thoroughly you keep your garden weeded, the fewer weed seeds there will be to germinate . . . providing you don't till the soil and stir up seeds that have been buried. It's really important to remove weeds before they go to seed, otherwise you're setting yourself up for exponentially more weeds in the future.

Mulch will help. Weedcloth has gone out of favor because it's a pain when you want to plant stuff, and if you don't keep it well mulched, it looks ugly exposed and tends to flap in the wind and get torn. If your annuals are the sort that seed themselves around and you don't want them to, a good layer of mulch will help to prevent that.

Rain does cause weed seeds that are on and near the surface of your soil to germinate, but it's also lots easier to weed right after a rain while the soil is still wet.

Lavender, I have some perennial borders and some mixed borders. I plant things close together, I don't mulch and I don't get too many weeds. Like Treelover said, it doesn't matter what type of plant material you have just as long as it's packed in.

If they're all perennials, you might try one of the chemicals that prevent seeds from germinating.

Fabric is terrible. I am still fighting what the landscaper put in 14 years ago. It's harder than all get out to dig through. Worse than that is rock around the foundation or anyplace you might ever want to plant.
It is true that the full cottage garden is suppose to keep the weeds down. I mulch and I still have to weed. My main problem is I often get the mulch down late. One other things that helps is using something like Preen that doesn't allow seeds to develop or some such--not real sure of the process, but hear it works. Again, it has to be done early. If you don't get it done early the only help is a garden stool to sit and pull &/or a good sharp hoe-I love my horse shoe shaped one, my pointed one for hard to get at weeds and my smaller hand hoe. I think I must be shoppin' for more plants when all preventive stuff needs doing. chuckle
gramma jan

I have 9 different beds (I think) and the ones that are full to touching of plants are pretty weed free. That is not to say that I don't cruise them regularly and yank the odd weed that gets above the perennials. But there is no crawling around and scratching out millions of weed seedlings.

This bed is probably my most trouble free one. I do need to remove some plants near the grass end because they are now too crowded.

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Also the Humming Bird bed right outside the kitchen is trouble free. I do have bird dropped seeds of redbud other trees that get yanked.

My best advice is to plant closer than recommended, mulch if possible by putting down wet newspapers first then the mulch. And try to do it before the plants get too large.
Then the real key is check and yank regularly. It is so much easier to pull a few than have hours of it to do. There is something so depressing to look at a bed full of weeds that we tend to keep putting it off! I find that if I let one get ahead of me and I do, to just start and not think about it.....just work a 3-foot area at a time. Also it works much better if the ground is nice and moist.

I am almost never outside for ANY reason that I am not yanking a weed or two along my way...even back and forth to the car, carrying the garbage out, walking out with the dogs. I find like others that works better for me than spending hours weeding. I dislike doing that and constant a weed here or there works better for me. It also helps keep the weeds from going to seed before I FIND hours in my schedule to weed too. If you can't afford the close planting idea all at once, use inexpensive seed packets to fill in until you can do what you want. Definately helps to keep the ground covered. Black eyed susans will keep ANYTHING out just about :)

I weed whenever I walk in the yard too. And planting close helps to keep most weeds at bay. I have some weeds in areas that aren't heavily planted. And of course I have crabgrass all through out.

I have hardly any weeds within my garden bed because I plant tightly. I have mostly perennials plants but I do leave some room for annuals and in these areas I too overseed them so weeds do not take root. I am vigilant about new weeds at this stage and pull them off immediately. This way, there is no room for weeds to grow, no light to encourage them.

by the way, my experience with mulch - well, new weeds do grow on top of the mulch. Have you ever seen dandelions balk at growing in aspalt? I had a dandelion penetrating my weed cloth. The determination of tap rooted weeds boggles the mind. The only barrier I've seen worked is the cloth I used to line my pond. So, I have to say that you'd still have to vigilant about weeds despite mulching and my way of handling these new weeds is to simply to disturb them while at a young stage. For dandelions I would pull out the entire plant, others like any young seedlings simply die when disturbed.

Ianna

Of course close planting keeps the weeds down, especially tall plants that shade the soil, weed seedlings in this situation don't thrive.
Mmmmm, must make another trip to the garden center, I can see some bare earth, got to keep those weed seeds at bay. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it :o).

Landscape fabric is only fit for placing under gravel in pathways. I have one bed where we put it down when I was young and foolish. Feeder roots from a yellow cedar are growing and thriving on top of it so now if I want to plant there I have to push the mulch aside, saw through the roots, cut through the fabric to dig a hole. Needless to say while doing this I cut as much fabric away as I can while preparing a planting hole for a new found treasure.

Annette

Sounds like the best thing to do is weed, weed, weed :) I got a great deal on some perennials and planted them a little far apart, to fill in my bed. I know they'll spread eventually, but I should have filled in the spaces with annuals. I did plant annual flowers in between my vegetables and the ground doesn't dry out as quickly and the weeds pull right out. Thank you for all the advice and I think I'd better do a lot more work on my weeding this weekend!

If you need lots of perennials and don't want to spend a lot of money, check out the wintersowing forum here on gardenweb. Be sure to read the FAQs at the top of the forum for instructions. It's simple, even in your zone.

In just over one year my garden went from bare (literally a new bed) to lush.

In May of 2008. This is what I had when I started building my lasagna style beds. It took me a whole summer since it was such a large area.

By fall, I had the path laid out and all the leaf mold in place. Over the winter, I sowed perennial and hardy annuals in containers and began planting out in late January as they germinated. Here's the same garden from a different angle (with new trellis, bird bath, and small pond removed) in early March 2009.

Things have grown well, with little extra water and hardly any chemical fertilizers. I am in zone 7, so you might not get this kind of result the first year.

All done from wintersowing and propagation via cuttings and division. The weeds didn't stand a chance.

My nemesis is grass. I'm working on an old bed, killing the grass and replanting. I think I'll try the wintersowing and see if I can get more plants in it.
Thanks for the pics, token.

Here's what I did to deter weeds. I planted everything tightly.

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I find that certain weeds are more prevalent this year in any bed newly planted--redroot for example. Other than that, my main nemesis is poison ivy. It is cropping up everywhere. I can't think of an time this summer when I haven't contracted it someplace on my legs or arms.

Janna, I just wanted to pop back in and tell you I love the mixed planting!

glenda

Would forget-me-not be comsidered weeds? No matter how often I pull them out they are back. I do enjoy them in the Spring when my garden is a sea of blue.

elsl, weeds are what you would consider pest plants in your yard and if you feel the forget me nots are beginning to feel that way, then in your perspective, they are weeds.

glenda, thank you. I practise succession bloom gardening and so even earlier in the season, this space was filled with tulips and daffodils. And when they went dormant, I overseeded their area with wildflowers which is what you are seeing.

Instead of chemicals try corn gluten meal. It keeps seeds from germinating for about two years. But you want to apply it Spring and fall because some weed seeds germinate and stay very small until the season is just right for them to grow. We used it against grass burrs and have eliminated them from our yard. The other thing you can put down is zeolite. It provides the trace elements that plants need and that most weeds dislike. Noxious weeds won't grow in fertile soil. Both the corn gluten and zeolite are non-toxic and are good for the soil. They won't upset the earthworms either. Cheryl

Cheryl, I know corn gluten is effective but it doesn't make any distinction between weeds and annual seeds. It's for this reason I don't use it in my beds unless I want to eradicate all traces of annuals and weeds alike. Your input concerning zeolite is however interesting. I'll look it up.

Ianna