As some background, I had grass planted at my new construction home in WI about a year ago. I believe it is mostly Kentucky Bluegrass. This Spring I planned to landscape around my house, but I have grass going all the way up to the house. A friend told me that since the grass is still only a year old, I wouldn't have to remove or kill it before landscaping and that the mulch would just smother it.

So, I went ahead and planted a bunch of shrubs, put down some weed barrier fabric (which only went out 4 feet from the house), and put down a couple inches of cedar mulch about 5 feet from the house. All of this was done on top of the grass. It felt great to be done!

Then, I started having second thoughts about whether the grass is really going to die or if it's going to poke right up again. I'm hoping the grass that has weed barrier fabric and mulch over it will die, but am especially skeptical about the grass that just has mulch over it. If it does pop up through the mulch, what should I do to control it now that the area is covered with shrubs and mulch?