You can use straw blankets. They are synthetic straw fiber, no weeds. They work very well but $$$. Another trick I use is if you leave your hay bales out for 6 months prior to use, most of the unwanted seed will hatch right there in the bale or otherwise be no good by the time you need it.

Flaming is a very efficient way of dealing with weeds under certain circumstances. It's ideal for treating weeds in driveways, walkways, along fencelines, in graveled areas, etc., but not very good for beds or lawns. And repeated flaming on existing weeds is not required - a couple of passes and a noticeable wilting of the topgrowth is an indication the weed is dead/dying. You do not need to "torch" or crisp the plant to black in order to successfully kill it and it does kill the roots as well. We used a flame weeder at my former nursery, most of which had graveled or paved sales areas and parking lots and it was highly effective. As to emissions, yes there will be some but no more and likely a bit quite less than using any gas powered garden equipment or even your gas powered BBQ.....let's make sure we are putting things in the proper perspective :-) Weed flaming is an approved organic alternative to herbicides. Here is a link that might be useful: flame weeding article

Sounds good. I happen to have some bacon for fried green tomatoes but no pork for your recipe at this time. I got a cheapo mandolin (finger slicer) at Wal Mart because I was too cheap to order the nice one from Amazon. I think I will have some fried potatoes for a snack because you made me hungry talking about bacon grease. I'll tackle the green tomatoes tomorrow. This thread is not on one topic and I'm the one who did that. In my mind it is all one thing - end of season issues. The only thing I have growing now is lettuce. The tomato vines need to be pulled up and piled somewhere and the grass and weeds that I couldn't pull because tomatoes are brittle plants need to also be dug out. There is no pressure to do anything now. Fall is supposed to look like this.

Thanks so much for the suggestion Rugby. I see the similarity to this.