Weeding 300 sf is no joke. ALWAYS put fabric down. You still can get weeds if there is any dirt on top of the fabric, but they cant root. After that, whatever suits her taste.
LOL!!! Try 14 acres after 200-years of weed deposition with 125 exotics while recovering over 250 native species.
Definitely use weed barrier. Put in some hardy woody plants instead of flowers. Then ypu can use Casoron granules to control any weed. It will kill grasses and weeds but won’t harm the woody plants. A little goes a long way. It also has a funky odor.
I wouldn’t use any small rock our stones. They are easily displaced and end up where you don’t want them. Later if you want to change your area up, you have to shovel all that out which is a huge pain.
Colored mulch needs to be added each year as it will fade out, but it looks really nice and you can always till it in if they want to change designs.
**Weeding 300 sf is no joke.**
Ok, are you actually Slo Joe?
You must have access to better fabric than I. I put it down and cover it with bark or rock and in a year its covered in weeds. The weeds are twice as hard to pull because their roots intertwine with the fabric and it pulls up to. What a mess.
Just put down the rock or bark and nuke the area with Casaron or RoundUp twice a year and be done with it.
The fabric is a bigger pain in the butt than the weeds. It makes what weeding you do have more difficult, doesn’t allow proper integration of mulch with the soil so the soil doesn’t improve and become a nice, easy to dif loam.
You can kill weeds with a thick 4 to 6 inch layer of green grass clippings. They will burn the weeds. Refresh every time you mow. Weeds will be gone. In fall, or in spring, turn it all under and plant what you want there, close enough that the new plants can fill in and crowd out competition. Or plant squash, pumpkin or gourds as a temporary ground cover to prevent weeds.
You will end up with a great patch to grow a veggie garden, strawberries, blueberries or flowers.
Actually, weeds can grow through the landscape fabric.
And they are tough to pull out.