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!

I use corrugated cardboard from shipping boxes or several layers of newspaper, topped with 3" of shredded or chipped wood mulch which is readily available to me. I don't use landscaping fabric because of bad experiences with it soon after starting gardening, and because it is a barrier that prevents organic matter enriching the soil. If you do a search on the perennials forum for landscape fabric you will get a ton of negatives; IME roots grow through it and make weeding in the future extremely difficult. Weed seeds will blow in regardless of what you use, and with an all organic mulch weeding is very easy, and as the mulch breaks down, the clematis are fed. I renew mulch every 2-3 years. In a new bed I will sometimes put down corn gluten to stop newly exposed weed seeds from sprouting, but I don't particularly like using chemicals in my gardens that may have a long half-life or end up in the water table or river nearby. I have one bed with many clematis along with shrubs and perennials that is about 15' by 75', and I spend perhaps an hour per month at most weeding it to maintain it weed-free. It was created with a large amount of horse manure incorporated, so it has plenty of weed seeds, but they don't sprout with the cardboard and mulch.

I agree with everyone that you shouldn't use landscape fabric. The previous owners of my house used a lot and it was a pain to deal with. They had put shredded hardwood mulch on top of it which broke down into compost and then weeds grew on top of the fabric and the roots got all tangled up in the fabric, so the weeds were harder to get rid of than if the fabric hadn't been there. Plus the fabric disintegrated so it was hard to remove it because it tore into pieces. I think it would make it difficult to divide and move your daylilies. Hope you fell better soon. Juliet

@ kimmsr... Not sure how recycled tires got into this discussion? @ OP... Just called the landscape company that supplies the mulch. It is called "Playmat" mulch. There is no dye in it and it is NOT put through a shredder, rather it is put through a chipper. They claim that it provides more cushion when it's not shredded. The mulch is also NOT heat treated. That's good stuff to know, although shredder vs. chipper is just a matter of particle size in the finished product. The ASTM standards for which play mat mulch is certified are in regard to moisture retention and erosion control. Here's a description of play mat mulch that I found: Play mat exceeds all ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) requirements and is superior in quality. Our virgin hardwood chips are processed to create mulch that is clean and free from twigs and leaves. Our playground surfacing compacts in layers to give incredible impact resistance, therefore, receiving one of the highest government safety ratings. He suggested to fluff the existing mulch with a rake and put another 4 inches of Playmat on top of it. This seems like an instruction that is in direct opposition to the results you want. Stirring up the mulch will allow more weed seeds to get to the soil. You could probably have a load of wood chips delivered for free via tree trimming service. The last sentence of the description I pasted above mentions compaction as a factor in impact resistance. If the person you called knew that, that should be more reason for them to not give you the "fluffing" instruction because the reason you have the mulched area is that it's under a play structure. I also asked for a herbicide recommendation and he mentioned that a number of his guests use a product called "Crossbow". I need to do some research on this product. Great idea, putting poison in a children's play area definitely warrants research. If you could go into the future and ask your grown children if they would rather have pulled weeds or played in poisoned wood chips, I think you will have done as much research as necessary, though.