Weeds! I hate weeds, but they are part of gardening. I still work d
mmit, and don't have the time to constantly work on weeding. I used to use the bagger on my lawn mower and mulch down between rows with cut grass. It is dense and doesn't let light through like straw does. But it still is a lot of work. So a couple years ago, I spent some cash on filter fabric, heavy stuff not the light weight garden cloth. What I got comes in 3 or 4 foot widths. I set up and split the 4 foot cloth to 2 foot, then cut to manageable lengths.
So I till and lay out my rows and plant. I keep it all in straight rows and when things come up, I lay the cloth down between the rows. 2 foot wide for beans, corn, peppers, etc. When I plant my tomatoes and squash, I use the 3 foot wide cloth. This does a decent job of keeping most of the weeds down and I can manage the little bit around the plants themselves.
So far this cloth has lasted 4 seasons and it still is intact, so it was worth it.
