By putting a covering of mulch over soil, you can deter a lot of weed seeds that might come up and ruin your landscape.
Un-mulched areas however, can become very weedy and unsightly, but not all is lost if you do have weeds.
There are many quick and easy ways to go from a weedy mess to a really neat and attractive landscape.
First, begin by wetting the weeds with a water hose. Preferably, do this at night so neighbors don't think you're crazy for watering your weeds.
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Weeds
Texas AgriLife Horticulturist Skip Richter has some easy tips for getting rid of weeds.
 
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After the weeds are wet, lay about four to six sheets of newspaper over them, make sure you thoroughly cover them up to block the sunlight out. That will cause them to die and decompose under the paper. Tall weeds can be pulled up and simply left laying on the surface, or broken over so the newspaper lays down well.
Then, cover the paper with some kind of mulch, such as pine needles or wood chips to make the covering attractive. The paper will last a few months before the mulch takes over.
It's a fast and easy way to turn the weedy mess into a nice garden area.
Any newspaper is fine to use, colored newspaper has no affect over the area. The papers decompose quite rapidly. Watch out for some gardening sections, especially during political season, those might provide a little too much nitrogen for growing plants.
Other than that, you can use any section you'd like.
