Sandy, I had several truckloads of tree chips delivered one year, thinking mulch. We covered the entire area approximately 6-8" deep. It wasn't a good idea for us, due to the chippings being so thick that we couldn't move them when it came time to plant plants. After about 5 years, they have broke down and we were able to disc them under. The ground is very soft in that area, tho.

As far as what we use, we use the roundup generic or nothing but tilling. It also doesn't work well. We do have a wonderful crop of weeds each year. Foxtail, anybody?

I was thinking of putting down the plastic like I usually do and then putting the wood chips only between the rows.
We have a place here in town that grinds up old pallets and makes mulch out of it. If you get their "garden mulch" which is just really old ground mulch, they only charge $10 per pickup truck load for it. I thought I would use some of that in there.
Unless someone comes up with something really great here!
I also had thought of mulching the whole thing, but I was thinking that would probably turn out to be a pain. Thanks for confirming that.
Yes, we have so much foxtail that it's just ridiculous. The tomato patch is more like a foxtail/tomato patch.

I wouldn't put down wood mulch in the garden unless you are using permanent raised bed. The wood mulch can tie up nitrogen and make it not available to the plants. What I use between the rows is a scuffle hoe.

Yes it does take several passes, but you aren't turning up new weed seeds, then they wont grow.

I used the scuffle hoe from Prohoe.com. Very good!
Get the one with the "D" handle at the end. No bending over and it is just like you are sweeping/mopping the weeds away. Very little effort, good results.

Here is a link that might be useful: ProHoe

i use straw to mulch between rows of plastic. the alternative is to use wider plastic. i grow organically so no roundup.

I have gone to raised beds, well slightly raised beds. they range in width from 30 to 60 inches and 25 to 50 feet in length. I am a smaller grower. I weed the beds by hand and it gets easier [less weeds each year].my paths are from 30 to 60 inches wide and I mow them and the clipping go to compost. am trying to grow lovers and the like in the paths for better compost.

I have tried a lot of things, garden rows with tilled paths, raise3d beds with wood sides, deep mulch and whatever. I do mulch between plants in the bed as much as I can. But is time consuming and requires fine chopped material. I have been thinking of a straw bale blower for mulching!

In our area, you can rent one of the straw blowers at a local rental center. My son works for a larger landscape company and they rent it when needed.

i am going to try a rental and then keep my eye open for a used one if it works well

My son recommends wearing a face mask because it gets very dusty. I think he said that the one they rent ran about $85/day. Alot out of my budget, but if I can get alot done, it might be worth it. This one was not alittle one.

well what we did this year worked, we put the plastic further apart so we could run between the rows with the tiller and then pull weeds that were left on the edges. the tines on the troy bilt seem to kind of just go under the edges of the plastic without tearing it up. So you can till close, just pay attention and don't look away for anything!

i found that the best way to get the weeds down between rows of plastic is the weedwacker. this doesn't work for vining crops after a while.

What about putting down more plastic there? Make everything plastic and the weeds can only grow where dirt gets on top.

Otherwise I used straw on some paths and didn't have enough so other paths I am weedwhacking.

in our little 50x100 pumpkin patch this year we put down some groundcloth that was left over from some greenhouses we took down and sold to put up a bigger one. Anyway, I'm loving it! We haven't had to pull even one weed and the pumpkins and squash don't have any weeds in between them at all. The drip lines are under the groundcloth. We had enough used cloth to put down to do this project with only using one 15' x 100 strip of new cloth. The only bad part is that we're going to have to take it up and fine a place to put it for winter and roll it out and pin it down again next year. And it's kind of expensive.

This is our first year of drip irrigation and plastic. We have decided this fall we are planting cover crops , annual grasses etc between rows then mowing would be our way to keep weeds down hope it works

I figured out next year I'm going to make my groundcloth pumpkin garden into a mum area and grow potted mums there, so I'm going to leave the vines there till spring to hold the cloth down and then set the mums out there on top of the holes in the groundcloth.
Tilling in between the plastic worked well as long as you keep everything tied up good. It got a little out of hand right here at the end, but things are pretty much finished now anyway. It did look much better all season, and many people have commented on how nice it looks, as opposed to a few comments last year about the weed patch. People sure are rude sometimes!