I plan to sheet mulch my daughter's small front yard. I've already planted hydrangeas against the foundation and only have about 3-4 feet to sheet mulch and plant between the hydrangeas and the sidewalk.
What are you planting between the hydrangeas and sidewalk? What are you using for mulch?
I understand that you can put cardboard on top of grass and weeds, add some compost, water it down, and then cover with mulch.
Do not put compost on top of the cardboard or whatever you use as a wed blocker. That creates a place roots can thrive above the weed blocker. If you feel you need compost put it under the cardboard.
When we first moved to the country in Arkansas my wife brought in a landscape architect to design landscaping, the house had none. Her husband had a company that installed the design. The way they prepared the landscaping beds around the house was to put in edging to define the area and give me an edge to weed-eat against. Then they laid landscaping cloth over the grass. They planted the shrubbery and bulbs first since they needed to dig holes and fill them back in. For some other stuff you could cut holes and stick the plants in. I've used cardboard myself in other places but don't recall cutting holes in it. It might be easier to put it around plants. Anyway, they covered that landscaping cloth with a thick layer of wood chips.
That worked well the first year. I had to weed-eat and pull grass that tried to grow into the bed. Between the foundation and the sidewalk you should not have that issue. But the wood chips used for mulch rotted and formed a great compost. Grass was my problem, not broad-leafed weeds. Grass seeds would blow in or get thrown in when cutting the grass and sprout in that compost. Once a year I had to pull up that landscaping cloth and remove what was left of the wood chips and compost, put the cloth back down, and bring in new wood chips. I'd use the old wood chips/compost in my garden as mulch over newspaper. By the end of that season the old wood chips were pretty much turned into compost. I added a lot of organic material to my garden that way. If I did not change the wood chips early enough though, that grass would send roots through the landscaping cloth. It was labor intensive and hard on my fingers to try to get those grass roots out.
I went through this partly to explain why I think putting compost on top of the cardboard is a bad idea. Also to discourage using landscaping cloth instead of cardboard. It works fine in the short term but to me it's too much maintenance long term. I don't know how long cardboard will last in your climate but I'd think it would be fairly easy to replace as needed. Maybe after you smother out the grass you won't need to replace it, just use mulch. But definitely smother out the grass first.
Wouldn't stuff still grow around your plant? The grass would still get some light and water since it's impossible to put the cardboard right up to the plant and make it so tight sunlight can't get in.
Not as much as you'd expect. Some of that depends on what you plant and how thickly you can mulch around it, but the mulch helps you a lot. If you can, remove the turf right where you plant to make pulling anything that comes up easier to pull. And depending on what you plant, it may self-mulch, provide so much shade that grass and stuff won't grow right under it.
How has it worked for you who have done it?
I've used cardboard in the garden, mainly in walkways and between rows and covered by mulch to keep the cardboard from blowing away. Not exactly the way you plan to use it but I think cardboard would work great for you.
Are you ever able to eliminate all grass around your plant?
In my opinion nothing is going to be maintenance free. That's a nice dream but I don't think that is reality. I think a good mulching system is about the best way you can go. And yes, it does almost eliminate the grass. I understand why you are skeptical but I'd certainly go for it.
Since you are talking grass and a landscaping area I'll mention there are products on the market that target grass and not other plants. You have to read what they can or cannot be used on carefully. I used one on a big iris bed. That saved me days of working in there pulling and digging grass that was hard on my hands and was usually needed to be done at a very busy time of the year. I consider those products to be very nasty and would not use them around anything edible. I'd definitely do the cardboard and mulch first, chemicals are a last resort.
