Yeah, it's been months, but I thought I add my experience. I am using 15 year landscape fabric that was installed 2 years ago. I too noticed that the water beaded up on it and mostly rolled off, depending on the slope. I figured that I had a lot of work to do and no one complained too badly about the stuff so continued with the installation. Over the fabric I put a few inches of rock, which is lots of work but I have hardly needed to revisit the beds at all. My perennial plants are all receiving sufficient water (they're growing and alive), there are no lakes forming, and everything is as expected. I admit that I was concerned initially about all the work that it took to prepare and complete the beds and that they might not receive any water... Though, not to worry friend, it'll be fine. Lay the stuff down, cut the X where the plant will poke through, and enjoy the minimal effort to maintain your beds. In the fall I do walk through with a vacuum/blower to remove as much organic material as I can. Takes only minutes and I'm sure it'll help keep the beds looking pristine. Enjoy!

Here are several previous discussions on its use - some pros and some cons - that you might want to read through. Personally I use it in a limited fashion under my tomato plants but not as a permanent barrier. I use the landscape fabric so that air and water have access to the soil and then remove it each fall so the soil underneath can be amended and tilled. I also top it with a thick layer of straw mulch as the black can easily overheat the plant roots in the heat of summer. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Black plastic mulch discussions

I strongly advise against plastic mulches or weed barrier type products. It sounds like a good thing that they don't break down (don't need replacing, right?) but their biggest drawback is that they don't break down. They get torn, shredded, but they never go away. And, they absolutely do not stop weeds, at least not the toughest ones. Stuff like nut grass will break right through it and come on up. And then, when you realize you made a mistake and try to take it out of the garden it is an absolute bear to get up! No! No! No! There are all kinds of organic materials that make great mulch: pine straw, newspaper, cardboard, grass clippings, chopped leaves, compost. They all have their plusses and minusses, but in general, they are all good. The secret is to clear your soil of weeds that are already growing and then put down a good thick mulch cover. You will have to replenish the mulch at least once a year, more often if you go to digging around in it. But it is more than worth the trouble. These mulches will break down and feed your soil, they will reduce your need for watering, protect your plants from extreme heat, AND control the vast majority of weeds. Do know, that they will not prevent ALL weeds. There will always be the need to do a bit of hand weeding, but that's all: just a bit. Make it a habit to not allow any weed to go to seed ever. You will eventually get it under control.

Landscape fabric doesn't do any of the things it claims it can/will, and eventually causes more harm than good. It will hinder desirable plants in various ways, and weeds can/will grow on top of it just fine. Putting cardboard under mulch is a much more effective method, which will smother existing weeds, then decompose (adding some nutrients to the soil,) doesn't hinder growth of desirable plants, quite the opposite. To maintain, add more mulch as the old decomposes. Once you gain control of the weeds by killing the existing ones, control is not difficult to maintain. I've been using leaves as mulch my whole life, first in OH, now in AL. Totally agree, different leaves behave differently as mulch, even within a genus. Not all oak leaves are the same. If they are totally flat, they seem to mat worse than the bigger ones with some curl to them. One general fact about any oak leaves is that they do take longer to decompose than most other leaves, mostly carbon, little nitrogen. This is much more noticeable when gardening a "new" patch of ground, recently reclaimed from lawn, or otherwise very infertile ground. Used alone in a new bed like this, they can cause some chlorosis and slow growth. Not a terrible concern if you're a long-term-goal gardener, planting shrubs and perennials. Something you'd probably want to address with some added nitrogen in the spring if using annuals, or just impatient in general. (More below.) But after a year or more, assuming you have been adding enough organic matter periodically, so that there is a decent amount of microbial life and decomposers like worms in the soil, oak leaves start decomposing much more quickly. Large amounts/percentage of walnut leaves can create problems for plants that are sensitive to juglone. If leaves aren't either walnut or especially resistant to decomposing quickly like oak, and there are worms and/or smaller life forms from the decomposition crew, a couple feet of leaves will likely disappear over the course of winter. Yes, I meant to say feet, not inches. This is how mother nature does it in the forest, nobody rakes in there, and leaves disappear. The ground ends up being dark, spongy, full of healthy and fertile humus and microbial life. The same thing can happen in even the most modestly sized garden beds. Matting and shedding water is a super way to zone cheat/push, keeping the ground temp from moderating too much, possibly preventing ground from freezing along the north/south border zones (Z6/7,) and being too soggy for marginally hardy plants regardless of the zone one is trying to push. A bit too cold + dry = possible survival. A bit too cold + wet = usually death via rotting. Should one find a mat of leaves in the spring, they can be fluffed, raked, possibly moved... and augmented with high-nitrogen sources such as grass from mower bag, kitchen scraps, anything with much more nitrogen than carbon. Leaves are only one great source of organic...