Sounds like you have a beautiful garden now. Congrats!

I have troubles with weeds too, as everyone does at some point. Mulch is the best for suppressing weeds, at least most of them. You will still have a few popping up here and there. I would add a few inches of pine bark mulch to the area, not the colored kind (bad for soil) or plastic, etc. The plants will come up fine the next year and maybe better with a little mulch protection. Good luck!

Jen

Yes, mulch would be a great idea. Almost anything organic will do - wood chips, pine needles, straw, etc. I use leaves collected in the fall - abundant and f-r-e-e. It all decomposes and adds to the soil. If you'd like you can add some compost first then lay on a dressing of mulch, but isn't necessary if you don't already have it and if the bed doesn't need it.

You'll still get weeds, but you'll find most of them are very shallow rooted and will become dislodged with any disruption, easy to take a small rake/hoe and weed that way or just hand pull, they come right out.

The perennials will come up through the mulch, but do your best not to mulch directly over the crowns of the plant - don't want to rot them out (a thin layer always gets blown over/moved over by the critters anyway, don't worry about that - just don't pile on a heavy layer right over the crowns)

When you've just created a new bed, turned up & amended soil and so on, the weed seeds in the soil really take off, and if there are any weed roots left in the soil, they really appreciate all the work you did too and grow like crazy. The first season or so in the bed can be a real problem, but gradually things will get back to normal, not that that means there won't be any weeds, but it is much more containable.

I usually use the newspaper method, especially if I am not completely filling the bed with plants, or the plants are quite small, or I am making the bed in the fall for next spring's plantings. All you need to do is lay down about 6 to 8 sheets thick of damp newspaper (cardboard works too, lasts longer, but can be difficult to plant through) covered with 3-5 inches of mulch. You can easily leave openings around the existing plants (just check carefully around the open spots because the weeds will find the holes just like the perennials do.

The paper method works very well in my cold zone 5, as it takes quite a bit of time for the paper to disappear. The paper decomposes faster I think, from what some people
have said on the forums in the warmer climates. BTW, the paper won't stop Canadian thistle or really tough stuff, but it stops a lot of other weeds, at least temporarily, and that's what you need to get ahead of the problem.

I agree with leslie on the newspaper. It does a pretty good job of suppressing weeds. You could also solarize the portion of the bed that is un-planted,(lay clear plastic over it and cook those weed seeds. Perhaps someone in your zone can chime in with info on how long to leave the plastic on there. It takes longer up here in the northland.