As long as the soil is somewhat fertile, the weeds will keep coming. Some will come from the seed bank in your soil, some will be blown in or deposited by birds. If you don't pull the ones you have and they go to seed, you will have LOTS more next year. There is no escaping weeds; what you have to decide is what to do about them. If you ignore them, they will multiply; if you pull or mow and don't mulch, you will have to repeat that ad nauseum (but will fill up your compost bin).

I have never had a disease problem from wood chips, but if they make you uncomfortable, you can mulch with straw, fallen leaves, dried grass clippings, anything that will cover the soil; it will not hurt your vegetables.

I looked online about mulching grapevines, and it seems that a whole lot of people all over the country do, in fact, mulch around the vines; in the colder areas of the country, which does include NJ for grape purposes, they pull the mulch back off the root area in the spring, then push it over the roots again when the vine starts its new growth.

It may be costly to mulch your whole area, but how much is your time worth? Do you really want to be weeding all that every week?

For grape vines, You may only mulch around the new plants the very first year, but away from the main trunk. But it is not recommended to mulch the plants after. Grape vines need the heat and they already have so many disease problems. Most of the sources say NO.

At this time, the beds are not mulched and I do not have any disease problems. I'll probably keep pulling the weeds and put them in the bed as mulch. I won't allow them to set seeds.

Hope next year, I'll have fewer seeds at the top layer. Nothing we can do for the seeds brought by birds or wind. I have more seeds than what they can bring.

You can also do ground cloth. I get the heavy duty stuff from my local garden store (not that cheap junk from lowes that disintegrates) and lay it just on top of the soil. Cut holes for the annual veggies and then lift the cloth in the fall or spring to put new compost under which also dislodges the couple weeds that managed to take root.

Deal with weeds when they are seedlings.
And never, ever allow them to become well established.
Also, never, ever, ever allow them to set seed.

Unwanted plants, what are called "weeds", are a fact of life. Ma Nature does not like her soil to be left bare and exposed to the ravages of the sun, wind, and rain so she plants those things we call "weeds" to help protect that soil. Most of those unwanted plants produce seeds once a year, but they accumulate in the soil and every time you stir it up, cultivate, hoe, or whatever you call that disturbance, you can move another seed to a place it will germinate and grow. The seeds from these unwanted plants come into the garden in numerous ways, on the wind, by birds flying over, on the fur/skin of any animals that enter the garden, on your clothes.

Mulches, wood chips are one type of mulch material but not the only one, help control that unwanted plant growth. Wood chips do not bring in potential disease problems any more than would a plant you purchased at a garden center.

kimmq is kimmsr

At this point, for my grapevine area, I'll just keep weeding. The soil won't be cultivated, so the top layer seeds will eventually exhausted. The seeds brought in by wind or birds are easier to control.

For my vegetable area, I'll use home compost and wood shavings from the woods. They are more fully composted than aged wood chips.

I used 4 year old wood chips over the past two years as mulch. I found that the wood chips harbor some insects. Also, more powdery mildew. I do not know if I should blame the wood chips, but certainly there are more micro life inside the wood chips. It seems more fully composed materials do not have so many problems. Several plants, such as watermelon, had bad powdery mildew.

Black plastic cover is another option. But it is not flexible and I'll probably have to replace them once a year since I rotate the crops each year.

Some people use carpet remnants, especially in the paths between the rows.

Carpet certainly works but there is some debate about using it because of chemicals used in its manufacture. Personally I have used it the past and can't decide either way. carpet discussion