First, a disclaimer: I am NOT a veggie expert. That said, of course I'm gonna weigh in with some advice anyway. ;-)

First, using roundup will NOT keep you from planting veggies. It's effect is very short-term. However, if you CAN cover the whole area with black plastic, that will help a lot. Second, don't EVER put a beetle trap anywhere close to your veggies. It draws beetles TO the veggies. If you want to use traps, use them far far away from the veggie patch. Third, your prickly weed was one of the nightshades -- related to tomatos. Dunno the others off-hand! Fourth -- next year lay down a thick mulch around each plant -- something as simple as thick layers of newspaper weighted down will help.

Good luck!

The little green tomato-thingy weeds are a disaster. Their real name is horse nettle and you DON'T want to drop the hundred seeds per "mater"- you'll have enough trouble getting the runners that overwinter under control. Also the bugs on them you don't want as they also attack potatoes and other crops, once they've worked their way through the horse nettle leaves.
I wish I had easy answers. But I know the enemies and you and I share a lot of them.

Heidi,

You just described my garden of three years ago! Last year's garden was a bit less full of weeds, but it still very much resembed your description - the black tomatoes, etc. I have spent this year learning what what wrong and how to fix it:

1) You had weeds because you had just tilled soil where those seeds had laid dormant. You gave them light, water, and aerated soil - what more could they want? It will help if you pull your garden out early this year while the sun is still HOT. First, till in your compost, manure, and lots of dead leaves if you can get your hands on them (if not, you need to buy many bags of "soil conditioner" and till them in.) Your goal with this is to break up the clay as much as possible and as deeply as possible because that is what is causing much of your troubles. After tilling, water the whole thing very very well, then immediately lay down 4mil black plastic over the area. Overlap the plastic well so there are no gaps plants could grow through. Stake the edges down tightly. You're forming a giant, black greenhouse that is going to quickly germinate your worst weed seeds, then steam them to death. Those that need light to germinate will literally be steamed and then roasted where they lay in your soil, so they never get the chance. This should also kill the deep roots of things like bindweed. You need to leave this plastic on all winter. Eventually the soil will lose all moisture, and that will cause any nasties that are left alive to dry out past the point of recovery. Temps under this black plastic, if you keep it tacked down tightly, should be so high you would get steam burns if you reached under there. During the winter temps will not be that high, but high enough to encourage the composting of your leaves, compost, and manure. So next year the bed should be amended and also much more free of weed seeds. Amazingly, some seeds will survive even this.

2) Your tomatoes had blossom end rot. Conventional thinking was that they were not getting enough calcium, but I believe this is something often caused by poorly draining, not-very-nutritious soil (otherwise known as clay.) To me, the draining is key. In every location where I've put a sauce tomato where the soil is mostly clay, the tomatoes have gotten blossom end rot. Good draining soil, no problem. So amend the soil especially well where you will place your tomatoes. Blossom end rot can also be triggered by inconsistent moisture, they say. The only reason I can think for your peppers to have gotten blossom end rot is that the soil is amazingly poor. Peppers are tough little plants!

3) Corn needs to be planted in a square of rows in order to get wind pollenated. If a kernel on a cob is not pollenated it doesn't swell. So it's important to plant in a square so that no matter which way the wind blows, the pollen blows toward a corn plant.

4) As for your odd weeds, take pictures of them and post them on the Name That Plant! forum here on Gardenweb. That will help you to know if any of those plants are worth keeping.

I forgot to mention that my new favorite barrier is cardboard! A layer of cardboard, with a little mulch over the top for aesthetics, is fantastic at stopping weeds and retaining moisture!

The other thing you need to do is to keep the weeds down once your garden is in. Either keep it weeded or cover in between the rows with something. I get old newspapers from on of the local schools and put them down thickly between each row. You can cover them with straw or whatever so that they don't blow away. I know lots of people that cover them with straw and just leave it all winter. The papers will pretty well decompose by spring so it can all just be tilled in. It will take awhile, but you will get there. If you keep up with it, it will be a little better every year.

Also, you might want to think about planting in hills. Dig hills wide enough for two rows of beans, etc. This will help with drainage too.

Depending on where you live, if you have some local stables they might allow you to shovel the stalls for the manure and shavings. I always put that in my garden throughout the fall and just let it sit until spring when I till it in. It is great.

Thank you SO MUCH for all your insight.I can see alot of things we will do differently.Definetly will cover the garden.We had each side planted and the middle open.We did plant the canteloupe and things in hills but the vines grew so enormous that itw as difficult to get in there and pull after awhile.My husband bought several hoes and that worked for awhile.It was easy when there was a drought but once the rain came for days on end it became more and more difficult to stop grass from spreading like crazy!The peppers may or may not of been rot it looked more like burns to me.You mentioned sauce tomatoes.The romas we planted were the worst when it came to rot.Right now I have the problem with the larger tomatoes with scar looking marks and they split open.We will definetly till again , rake it all out (MUCH better this time).Ammend and cover.
I have to find some type of fool proof method to edge it though to keep out grass next year.There are enormous amounts of earthworms which is good.Gonna get a good book to read over the winter also on growing up instead of things sprawling and garden layout etc.Thank you all again :)

The splitting and scars on the tomatoes are due to the drought followed by days and days of rain. The drought toughened the skins, then the rains allowed the plants to take in a lot of water, swelling the tomatoes and causing them to burst their skins. Looks ugly but doesn't taste bad. However you can't leave burst, partially ripe tomatoes on the vine long or they will start to rot.

I think a fantastic edger plant for a vegetable garden would be lamb's ear. The bees go nuts for lamb's ear, so I'd hope they'd also stop by the veggies while visiting. I haven't tried it but I just might. They really seem to like my pink Joe Pye Weed too, but that gets really tall.

Do your tilling really well right now, so you don't have to till again, ever. Tilling is really tough on the worms. Cover with the plastic this year (to kill your weeds), then in spring, uncover, plant, and spread cardboard to cover the whole area around your plants. I'm telling you, a better weed barrier cannot be found. It's tough, but allows the water to soak through, and does a pretty good job retaining moisture in the soil. If you don't like the look of it, spread mulch over top. By keeping your soil covered at all times you will allow the worms to work their way to the very top of the soil - in effect, constantly tilling for you! In the late fall, uncover, throw on your compost and manure, scratch it in, then recover and let the worms go to work.

Get your soil tested in spring in case you need to sprinkle lime or something to improve the pH of your garden before planting. Don't add the lime unless you've been told to by the soil testing people, though.

As for growing "up", this year I created a bamboo truss for my tomatoes. I made of tepee of three bamboo canes (harvested a couple of years ago from a neighbor's house) and lashed them together. At the other end I did the same thing. I laid two bamboo canes across the top between them, spanning the length of my tomato bed. Each crosspole lay in the crotch of where the three side poles came together. I lashed them down on each end. There is about a 2" gap between the two crosspoles. Next I stuck a small bamboo stake next to each tomato plant, and I tied each plant to each stake with stretch tape. Then I tied a piece of twine to each stake, near the top. I threw the ball of twine up over the truss and tied it off so the twine was not overly tight or loose. Then I wound the tomatoes up the twine as they grew. This system works best for indeterminate, vining-type tomatoes, which are the ones that were trying to crawl away on you. This same method would also work for beans.

For melons and winter squashes, if you have the space, try this: Put a bale of hay next to the young vine such that it doesn't block the light. When it's long enough, lay it over the bale. Add a bale next to that bale when the vine is long enough. Continue as the vine grows (this is great to do down the rows between your corn - the shade from the corn will keep the vine from stressing in the hottest parts of the summer.) Support the fruits on the bales or prop them up on stones or clay pots between the bales. This will keep the vine healthy and the fruits free of rot, plus make it easy for you to turn them to ripen them evenly.

Thanks to all of you for the great information. My garden this first year was such a loser in all the same ways as Heidi's plus not getting any rain in June or August and only a little in July. I'm going to do the black plastic on top of mulch this winter and just hope that something better happens next year.

Thanks,
Katie (formerly DirtDiggingLady)

You all have great ideas and so much knowledge. I have far more experience reading about gardening than actually working in the garden. I've just moved to Middle Tennessee from the west coast and I'm excited about putting some of that knowledge to work.

I do know from experience that mulch keeps the weeds at bay much better than bare soil. The thicker the mulch the better, but be careful around the base of plants as it can cause the stem to rot. I've read in Mother Earth News magazine about a lady that uses thick layers of old straw and just keeps piling it on. It keeps down the weeds and enriches the soil as the bottom layers break down.
Another suggestion (for the growing vertically) comes from a book called Square Foot Gardening. They use a method incorporating a 'U' shaped assembly of pipes that is stuck into a 1'x4' trench or raised bed. It has twine tied to it for the vines. This trellis supports one to many plants depending on the type of the plant. Heavier fruits such as melon can be supported in old nylons tied to the top of the trellis frame. The book has a wealth of information as does the website (I've included the link). At the website, check out the 'What is SFG' and 'Mel's Column' buttons. Good luck with your garden next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Square Foot Gardening

I moved to Leoma and had my first garden this year. My husband disked it last year, i planted annual rye in the fall and it was pretty green all winter. i then (by hand!) made raised beds by raking the dirt from the planned paths into the bed and added the leaves that sat all fall and winter (after being shredded). I laid black roofing paper on my paths but didn't do any mulch on the beds and man did the grass take off! I know the pain of attempting to keep it out. as soon as the plants got high enough, i put out wheat straw as mulch which helped keep the weeds out fantastically. also helped maintain moisture levels too. the areas not planted i put black plastic down. also had some areas i was just too tired to dig up into beds and planted right throught the black plastic and these areas turned out to be the best growing without the work! i planted the full gammit of stuff to experiment on what did best in this first garden. the best growers with least trouble: yellow squash, cucumber, eggplant, cowpeas, potatoes (white and sweet), tomatoes (except for tomato hornworms later in season), carrots, watermelons, mesclan salad, onions and gourds. the worst to fool with for insect control were: all the cabbage family plants: cabbage, brocoli,cauliflower. they were continuously being ate on and even when grown from seed for the fall, completely ate up. not sure what's doing it. can't ever catch the little varmint. also, my husband put a water system and electric fence around. it's great! He's great! right now turnips and mustard are growing without any spraying which i've tried to avoid.

Marty DeHart, one of the hosts of Volunteer Gardener, (and our very own Souer) is going to speak at the Fall Swap about propagation techniques.
That might be exactly what you need to get things started correctly this Spring.

I know that allot of people use corn gluten to stop
weed pollination in their lawns, assuming all of your
plants already had their first true leaves, would there
be any adverse affect of using corn gluten in the veggie
garden?

I'm a little leary about the use of the roofing paper. Would any bad chemicals leech out?

Evelyn