Nutgrass will poke through anything you put down. Part of the problem is that it thrives with sufficient water and you must use a goodly amount of water for the tomatoes.

The secret to killing it is removing the green at the 4-6 leaf stage.

At that stage, new nutlets have not yet formed. either pull it out or use weedkiller.

Be persistent and you can win; lapse for a season or less, and the weed will win big! It won't be fast. It won't be easy. But you can win.

Another choice: Grow the tomatoes in large pots; depending upon the kind determinate or indeterminate), 5- or 10-gallon size.

See http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7432.html

That's what I was afraid of happening. I'll just give up on the garden and put in some shrubs. I can weed-eat and spray around those.

I don't have any problem smothering that kind of grass with corrugated cardboard under a heavy layer of organic matter. Combined with the suggestion above, you could put the smother down, garden in containers this year & start using the ground space next year.

Tiffany, thanks, It's worth a try. Since everything would be in pots, don't you think it would be ok to use Image along the fence if some pokes it's head up?

I've not used 'cides, so I couldn't offer an anecdote. The label instructions should have some guidance.

A row of landscape timbers along the fence might be worthwhile as a barrier. If you have creeping grasses, cutting all around the outline of your smother area will help ensure success, by severing all ties from plant material under the smother to material outside the area, which could keep the material under the smother alive a lot longer than necessary.

Smothering is how I've started all of my garden beds, with a very few exceptions and I wish I'd had more patience with the exceptions and went with a smother. Trying to get weeds under control the first couple years without that is so much more work. Every seed that ever fell in the area for the past few decades seems to sprout.