Best weed control

For you guys that have a traditional garden, what's the best way to prevent weeds? I have raised beds so weeds aren't that big of a issue but me and a buddy plant a traditional garden on his in-laws property and the weeds are ridiculous. We're talking about maybe covering it all in plastic of some type of weed guard and planting through it and running some type of irritation under it. Anybody do this? Pros? Cons?

I found a old used truck tarp thats very thick. Its about 20x48. Laid it on the ground after garden was done. Hoping it killed most of what was growing under it. Will see this year i guess.

Sounds like the perfect place for woven ground cover. https://growerssolution.com/products/polypropylene-ground-cover

The tarp over the garden will kill seeds that were in it. Be sure to take it off several days before wanting to turn it. The ground will be very wet and hard, the rain water on it packed it.

Was hoping to not turn it after the tarping and just dig holes so we wouldnt be bringing up a bunch of new seeds.
We will be buying watermelon,cantaloupe, tomato plants.

I'm talking about putting either plastic or land scape fabric down over the entire garden and cutting holes in it to plant. Anybody do it that way?

Buddy of mine used to put mulch around each plant. Helps retain moisture too.

They do it everyday growing vegetables on plasticulture. Helps with a lot of annual weeds, but nutsedge will come right through it. Main thing is you have to have irrigation to each hole to get enough water to the plants if the entire garden is covered.

I wouldn’t buy melon plants generally. They’re easy to grow from seed, seeds are cheap, and they don’t love being transplanted.

The area had pre emergent sprayed in it is why going the plant route this year.

Depending on what you sprayed, those roots may be pruned off once they grow out of the peat plug. I’ve seen it before. Hopefully you didn’t use something with a real long residual.

Simazine. Its been almost a year.

You should be good to go.