I do a lot of hand weeding, but much of my gardens are next to two fields that get very little if any maintenance. So the weeds grow tall and the wind spreads the seeds over to me. The grasses and the vines in the fields grow pretty much unimpeded except for my efforts. So I end up spraying a lot of area that is actually not even on my property just trying to keep things under control.
I use pine straw, grass clippings, and leaves as mulch and weed deterrent. No matter how much mulch I put down every year, I still have a lot of weeding by hand to do, and a lot of spraying to do also. But without the mulch I would be totally overloaded with weeds, and they would get completely out of control.
Edited to add photos:
Fields next to me today: Those are not trees in the first two photos just weeds, there is a willow tree and bamboo in that third photo and that causes problems also.
But right now this early in the year this is what my rows look like with no weeds.
In many ways this is the best time of the year, because the weeds are just starting to grow and I can keep ahead of them.
