Yes it works and holds moisture and breaks down to make better soil,But you will have some weed seeds in the straw or oat seeds.I try and find someone that just has horses that feeds alfalfa hay,If it get's wet and moldy they won't feed it because it will make the horse sick!It's beeter if you can locate a stack that is rain spoiled and quite rotten.When it dries out it crumbles and is easy to spread around the plants.I have used oat straw and it works just as well except for some leftover wild oat seed. I just look around while I commute from place to place and I have been able to keep it on hand for free.I live in a farming community so it is all around me,When someone get's lazy or the wind blow's the tarp covering the hay off during a storm I tend to reap the benifits.Lawn clippings work well also.If I knew how to place a picture of the mulch in my garden I would and then you could see how good it looks.I just did my onions and garlic and fava beans.I let the plants get some size to them and then weed the area and mulch it.I have also placed a 1" by 4" over the seeded row of say beans and spread this crumbled mulch over the area,Then pull the board off and wait for the beans to come up and get tall enough to weed this smaller area and then pull the mulch around the established plants,You can add more mulch anytime to keep the weeds shaded out.Good luck. Joe

If you take a look at photos I have posted on Cottage Garden-gallery (see "Things are starting to fill in") you will understand that I know from what I speak (my whole garden is a slope). When we bought this property many years ago, it was covered with maple trees which provided slightly less than total darkness under which nothing would grow (except weeds). I tackled this mess one area at a time. As my knowlege grew--so did the number and size of the beds. Try to do only what you can reasonably do well at the moment. You will have the time, however limited , to monitor your beds and watch for problems, happy accidents (like a volunteer seedling having planted itself). You will also learn if the plant choices you have made like the home you have provided them. This alone could save you a lot of frustration, time and financial investment. Having tried landscape fabric-difficult to keep in place,mulch tends to slide off (particularly in a hard rain). I prefer to use the 'lasagna method'. Lay down 8 layers of wet newspaper overlapping edges so weeds can't find a way through and cover with several inches of mulch (I find shredded bark works best because it will knit together and prevent sliding. Many local landfills provide this to the community at little to no cost.). Leave to overwinter. This method will not only help to control the weed problem, but will also add beneficial elements to the quality of the clay soil. Ask your friends and relatives if they would help you by saving their old newspapers for you (you will need quite a bit). I don't know the ages of your little ones, but if they are anything like my two kids were at toddler stage and up, there is nothing they would like more than helping mom and dad. Especially if it involves the opportunity to "play" in the water and get soaking wet outside. You could try this project on a hot summer day In the spring you can plant. What plants will depend on your light conditions. I hope this is helpful.

I'm not sure that you're going about this the right way. Understanding how some of these allelopathic substances work (and where they are) is important. Fennel is a real interesting plant and can cause many different kinds of plants problems in a wide variety of ways. Since you are most interested in inhibiting seed germination, you need to use leaves (as in the leaf litter), and the seeds of this plant. Many different plants contain allelopathic chemicals within the oils of their seeds and/or seed hulls. Fennel is a prime example. But not all plants will be affected by this chemical reaction. You might have to experiment. Sunflower seed hulls are another example such as the one above. You are correct in that these chemical properties are found elsewhere within plants than the much advertised root exudates. But not from gases expelled from the leaves, but of leaf litter and/or water run-off from the foliage and stems. Pine straw, by the way, has been proved to have seed inhibition properties, but I've not ever seen a list of the affected (sensitive) plants. One product with a fairly wide range of effectiveness is corn gluten meal. I'm most familiar with its use on turf (lawns, sports fields), but is also highly recommended for other areas, as well.

Be very careful of Roundup around your lilies, even if they didn't get enough drift on the foliage to kill them, the Roundup can cause damage that will spoil their appeal. I think you're on the right track with your weeding, then follow it with mulch. There are all kinds of weed supressing mulches available, I choose to mulch with compost or composted steer manure to slowly feed and condition soil while covering weed seeds. You can also use a pre-emergent like Preen with the mulch if you wish to do that. The biggest step you can take in controlling weeds is never, ever let one go to seed. Eventually, if you stay on top the weeding and don't let any disperse seed back into your beds, you'll have the payoff of much less weeding in the future. If you haven't had time to weed, at least grab that flowering part and break it off...