Hello everyone....

I'm a newbie to veggie gardening, and I have a few questions. I just started a veggie garden this year, and didn't know about letting the weed seed bank sprout (and killing them) BEFORE planting the veggie seeds--so, needless to say, I had a FOREST of grass growing around all of my veggies until recently. I finally had time to get out there with some black plastic (the kind that has tiny little perforation holes in it all over), and covered up all of the grass (I had to weed around each veggie about a 6" diameter so it wouldn't come up through the holes in the plastic meant for the veggies).

My question is this: I have watermelon and cantaloupe vines growing now on TOP of this black plastic--and, being in full sun, the black gets pretty hot of course. Is this OK for the vines or am I going to damage them? Two of my vines have little baby watermelons on them (about 1.5 inch diameter), and, since I've never grown any fruits/veggies before, I need some advice :) I've mulched around each plant with some well-rotted (it was old) hardwood mulch (there was even worms in the stuff), but of course the vines aren't all on the mulch.

Should I go get some straw mulch to put down on the plastic? How long will it take to kill all that nasty grass/weeds so I can remove the plastic? Thanks all!!