On the other hand, I find the scent of society garlic to be unendurably offensive. It is widely planted here because nothing bothers it and it is drought tolerant. However I find myself holding my breath while passing as quickly as I can. True garlic does not exude any scent unless brushed, and even then is not as unpleasant as society garlic. Society garlic casts its odor far and wide. It may not bother everyone, but I personally make it a point to avoid any garden where it is planted. I'm having trouble thinking of a plant I dislike more. Poison oak would fit the bill. Some years back I experimented with using garlic chives in the rose garden. I changed my mind because it spread enthusiastically and started choking out plants I preferred. It has been ten years now since I removed it, and I am still pulling out plants each year. Be careful with this one. No offensive smell, but it is very tenacious. I would not plant tomatoes with roses. I've tried it, both on purpose and accidentally when seeded in the garden, probably by a passing bird. Tomatoes are far too robust to play nicely with roses and later in the season start shading them. Then when you pull them out in the fall you are left with a big empty space. Pumpkins and squashes are even more this way. Yes, I gave that a try a few years ago also. The squashes did quite well. The ornamental plants suffered greatly. Like you, I experimented with the whole edible landscaping concept, mixing food plants with ornamentals in the same beds. It simply did not work well for me and I have pretty much abandoned it. What does work reasonably well is to intermingle roses with some of the herbs. It's very traditional, too, since roses used to be planted in physic (medicinal) gardens. You could try parsley, sage, and thymes. (I almost feel as though I'm singing the old song). Lavender, too. All are pretty and do not spread other than some casual reseeding, easily controlled. Avoid mints and most artemesias, as they will travel underground aggressively. Be aware that roses prefer more water than some of these herbs do, so the herbs are likely to be short lived if the roses are getting enough water. If you are using drip irrigation you could work it so that the rose gets more water. Anyway, have fun! Rosefolly

I don't know why people have such trouble keeping grass on one side of a brick or landscape timber edge. Yes it can go under, over, but it usually doesn't. If it goes under, pick up the edge, fix the problem, lay the edge back. I don't spend more than a couple hours per year maintaining hundreds of feet of edge this way, except in low spots or along tree roots where the border material hasn't been making solid contact with the ground. Quickly passing by with an edge trimmer, and occasionally actually bending down to pull an errant piece keeps it from going over. It's a border, not magic, it does need attention. Aiming the grass chute away from beds when mowing is the most important part of keeping grass (& other lawn weeds) out of beds, once an edge is established, IME/O. I like this lady's method (pic below!) Running the mower tires along this should suffice most of the time, might have to occasionally use the edger on some very determined creeping grasses. None of the grasses I've lived with in OH or AL could get under this if they were mowed regularly.

I have tried cardboard under several inches of mulch, but the problem is that it will usually only last for the season and by next year you will have to do it all over again (cardboard is better than newspapers though). Maybe for a person in arizona or california, it would be more effective, but with the rain in NY it's not so useful. To echo what everyone else has said, never use landscape fabric. It is the absolute worst, doesn't work and you will be finding pieces of it for years.. Now, I just use my weed wacker and this little tool with 3 claws on it to just rip the weeds out. It's uncomplicated and does give me a slight feeling of satisfaction. I've also found that white vinegar can be pretty good for sidewalk and patio weeds:)

2 tbsp of 2-4-D, 2 tbsp dish soap, 1 gallon water. shake well, if dollar weed among the flowers, very carefully let out one drop of mixture on dollar weed, kills only what it touches. have used for years, works.