I'm thinking you need to find a forum that deals with "farming" as apposed to "gardening"
I have 1 1/4 acres and only use about 3 4x8 raised bed gardens. These raised bed gardens give us (2 people) plenty of produce for 2 people!
Just My Opinion! Nancy

In my experience, weed control never ends until frost. As the vines spread and shade the ground, new weed growth declines under the canopy due to the shade, but you will still get weeds that grow tall, such as lambsquarters and redroot/pigweed. The plants need room to vine, and until the vines completely cover the ground, bare ground=weeds.

If you use plastic mulch or heavy organic mulch, you can keep the weeds down. More work early, less work in mid summer.

Some crops have pests that can do a lot of damage, and they vary with the area. I really don't have any insect or disease problems that affect vine crops, so I very rarely spray them for anything. Occasionally I get spider mites if I don't keep them adequately watered, and my watermelons like to suffer from root disease later in the summer--probably another cultural problem I haven't figured out how to minimize. Your area may be different.

Beyond that, I can't say that vine crops are any easier to grow than tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onions, potatoes, corn, etc. It is just a matter of what is best adapted to your climate, personal interest, price if you will do it commercially, and your psychological rewards from getting the produce that you enjoy the most. (Cantaloupe are a real winner!).

The vine crops can be pesky for bugs and disease...especially after fruit sets on. Also weeds are harder to control in them. Still, I like raising melons and watermelon best of all crops I raise.

I read where a few pink rooted pig weed can be good in vine crops...the roots open channels down deeper for the vines. Cut the weeds off before the seeds are ripe!

Dean, the amount of work you expend on your vine crops depends upon your expectations, and how much you are willing to tolerate. With unlimited land, you could plant them in a new location each year, give them only minimal attention, and still get a fair crop most years. You will have some weeds, and some losses due to insects (and possibly dear & rodents). I would recommend rotating the location regardless of what care you choose to give them.

As Beeone mentioned, the use of black mulch under the vines will reduce the amount of weeding necessary. It will also reduce water loss, which could be especially important if you do not intend to irrigate.

In our area, you will most likely have problems with insect pests - cucumber beetles, squash bugs, and squash vine borers. They can destroy some crops completely, especially C. pepo & C. maxima squashes. You can spray for those pests, but if you garden organically (as I do) then the use of a floating row cover over the young plants can make the difference between success and failure. I remove the cover when flowering begins, or when the plants outgrow it. Obviously, this is more expensive & time-consuming than spraying, so it becomes a question of your personal priorities.

The losses due to animals would include not only your vine crops, but the rest of your garden as well. If the land involved is yours, you might want to consider some type of fencing. Deer fencing is long-lived, but fairly expensive, and will not exclude other pests such as raccoons. I would recommend electric fencing; there are many fence chargers available, including solar-powered units for remote areas.

there are books on small farming for profit. I think Territorial Seeds has a good list of books. they sell this book at full price but you can get it discount at amazon.

Here is a link that might be useful: one possible book

Lucky you! If I had "unlimited access to land for growing crops," I'd think about what foods I like to eat most, what I'd like to experiment with, access to water, and how much time I'd want to spend, per day and per week. In my experience, the foods I like to eat are always the best choices, no matter how the weather affects productivity. If I had limited time per day or per week to spend on this project, that would narrow my choices considerably but would mostly affect the size of the garden. Some crops need to be picked daily or so (beans, berries) to be worth growing, and picking itself takes time. Every crop needs some regular attention so you can deal with insects or diseases or predation as it occurs. And, of course, every crop needs some soil prep.

If you don't have a lot of time to spend in the spring and summer but have a more time now, invest in soil prep and research. In my experience, some cucurbits are more attractive than others to cucumber beetles and squash bugs. Every year, I find out which varieties grow better here and are less susceptible to bugs. If you plant varieties that do attract bugs, then the bugs will probably end up feasting on the less susceptible varieties as well. If you find varieties that are less attractive to bugs, and time your plantings just right, you may be able to avoid the bugs entirely (I did, this year, until I composted a neighbor's squash plant that was still crawling with squash bugs). I found several cucumber beetles on a squash plant early in the season and brushed them away, and they never returned! But that kind of good luck requires regular visits to the garden, and you have to know what to look for and what to do.

With large cucurbits, sometimes a female flower comes into bloom but the only male flower is too far away. One of my fellow community gardeners walks all over the garden when the female pumpkin flowers are in bloom to find a male flower so that she can hand-pollinate (otherwise, no pumpkins).

So, anyway, if I wanted a minimal-attention garden, I'd plant perennials such as artichokes and rhubarb, or root crops such as potatoes, carrots, and beets, which are not picky about exact harvest dates and which can be stored easily.

If I had limited gardening experience, I'd either start small or enlist the help of local gardeners or do research on what's easy to grow in your area. Is there any chance that you could create a community garden and share the space? That would give you access to other gardeners.

Here is what I am looking at doing:

I am looking at next year growing a garden and selling some of the produce.

I have access to 2 acres, but with a only a hoe and small rototiller I think I will start with a 80 by 80 garden. Also the land is new to me and I want to see what the soil will grow.

I am looking at growing 5 types of squash, cucumbers, beans, Watermelon, Muskmelon, and tomatoes.

I will be selling at a brand new store(opening spring 08) that sells discounted items(not food). This location is 1 mile from a small town, right off of a interstate exit, and on the road most people locally drive to go to the local Amish stores(10 miles away). This store will not be air conditioned, and I do not expected large traffic, but some traffic.

Keep in mind that all the crops you mention come in late in the season, from late July through September. They also need plenty of water. Melons need a long growing season and might be tricky to grow outdoors where you are.

A long time back my brother-in-law got the bright idea of raising pumpkins on a vacant piece of land near where I lived. He got someone to plow it and run a cultivator over it and then he and his family drove the 200 miles up and planted. After that they came up twice to weed. Actually, they were lucky in the amount of rain and because deer weren't a problem back then. But just as the pumpkins got ripe, I noticed that a woodchuck was starting to take bites out of the ones on the edge of the plot. I got out the wheelbarrow and spent maybe four or five hours (I was a lot younger then) and picked everyone of them, wheeled them up to the house and stored them in a back room. A couple of weeks later the family drove up with a trailer and collected the crop - bushels of them.
And then, of course, there was the problem of what to do with them. The kids peddled them door to door without much success and my brother-in-law finally took a car full of them to work where a fellow employee spent some company time painting elaborate faces on them. They sold very well but if he cleared a profit on the crop, it hardly paid for even the limited amount of work involved.
The problem is, as my sister unkindly pointed out, that by the time he got a crop, so did everyone else and they were a drug on the market. Best prices go to the people who can hit the market first. Which is why fields around here are planted early under row cover.
Incidentally, his next idea was to raise zucchini and at that his entire family rebelled. The governor of Maine has stated that Maine is a great state with few problems but don't leave your car unlocked in summer because it will be filled up with gift zucchini.