cardboard or weed membrane

suse*

HI I'm new to gardening. I've just had the garden landscaped with a new raised beds that had new top soil. In the month it has taken me to go buy some plants for them though it is full of weeds already.

I had thought I could put weed membrane down and cut holes in to put the new plants through, but I am worried this might cause problems in future years on feeding the plants. So now I'm thinking a mix of cardboard, newspaper and maybe rotted horse manure (£1 a bag from a stables nearby) to act as mulch instead and hopefully supress the weeds a bit.

Also could you put grass cuttings on as well do you think or do I just have to throw those away. They don't have a garden rubbish bin where I live, so I have just put it in bin bags in the general waste so far as I don't have room for a compost bin either.

These beds will just be for flowers and plants and not growing anything to eat if that makes a difference.

I_have_spoken

Hopefully the soil has only annual weed seeds, so once these germinate and you hoe/weed off, then the numbers should reduce.

If it really is well-rotted, then the horse manure option would be best for the plants but it can also contain weed seeds!

Grass cuttings I'd avoid as it takes nitrogen from the soil as it decomposes and attracts slugs