After being inundated with weeds this year, mainly because I did not
have sufficient time to allow garden to be tilled under and emerging
junk to get killed, I want to start to get rid of everything thats
there ahead of time and keep it that way. I had considered, mowing
everyting thats in there now, veggie plants etc that are finished, and
then spraying with a herbicide such as roundup or something strnger to
kill everything, and then perhaps doing it again 2 or so weeks later.
The mow it all close to the ground, till it under, and cover entire
garden plot with a heavy green tarp I have. Tarp is an old swimming
pool cover, very dense and heavy, and wilol not allow any light
traansmission. I live in Alabama, and I am thinking along with the
herbicides, using this tarp will cause the grasses and weeds to die
fro being overheated and smothered. I know I killed some large sectins
of my lawn when the cover was laying there for about 3 weeks, and its
just now starting to regrow.

Any suggestions for a head start on getting this garden plot prepped.

I was just about to reply when I saw Warren's response -- it was almost
exactly what I was going to suggest as well. I just recently did the
same with a large section of our front yard and intend to do it with the
rest of the front yard in the next month or two (need to find a lot more
mulch or take a second job -- it will require around 150 bags!). Got a
couple of dandelions that managed to poke through the newspaper and mulch --
must have pulled some of it up when I fluffed the mulch. Sigh

One thing to comment on -- If you pull woody growth, mow it twice (2nd
time at lowest setting), till it in, then cover it, there will be no need to
use RoundUp or any other chemical -- the tarp will handle the job of killing
anything else in the soil quite nicely (along with some help from the sun of
course). You'll want to pull the tarp up before the end of Autumn though to
give the soil time to start living again -- at that point you need to mulch
it heavily, I'd recommend 4" or so, and putting newspaper down over top
(before mulching) is an added bonus. Remember that the newspaper should be
the print section only -- no glossies or ads -- and if your newspaper is not
a major paper, it wouldn't hurt to call the company and make sure they're
using soy based inks (nearly all are but it never hurts to be safe). A good
tilling in the spring, maybe after a little soil amending with compost, and
you'll be in business.

James