I really wish that the median age for master gardeners and master naturalists was lower--so many of them seem closed to new information, especially permaculture-based knowledge.

We've used mulch to great success in one area of our yard. We layered cardboard, then put down compost, then mulch. This raised the surface of the ground about 8-10 inches.

That was about 4 years ago, and now, that soil is rich, dark, and relatively weed-free without much maintenance (due to only high-successional plants, not weeds, being able to find ideal sprouting conditions there). The trees and shrubs we planted there are growing at very rapid rates, and the soil is always moist, even in the dead heat of a Texas summer, without watering.

We've dug in that area over a foot down and can no longer find any evidence of the coardboard, nor the pale, clay-ish soil that used to be there!