Laying fallow part of my garden

[nohorn]

I can no longer crawl up and down rows so I am starting to use raised beds. (large wooden sewer pipes, sawed off w/ added floor and soil). Now I will be able to garden at waist height. Well what do I do with the rest of the ground. I don't want it to be over grown with weeds. Should I put cardboard down to block weeds, ground cover over that or does anyone have ideas? My garden is fenced to keep moose out. I don't think I want to use chemical weed killer. How about black plastic? Then use wire staples to keep it down. Here in Alaska we raise big vegetables, however, weeds get just as big and faster. Somehow there are always problems to conquer with gardening.

[rowanwitch]

any thich covering to exclude light will keep the soil weed free...cardboard under the black plastic would be excellent

[Clanad]

Here in the intermountain west of the U.S., we've used an application of Roundup in such situations. This will kill all the vegetation under the raised beds (we use it in the lanes between beds) but doesn't persist in the soil. Almost immediately, (you don't have to wait for the weeds/grass to die back) then cover as 'rowanwitch' suggests...
To make the area more attractive, I'd add a colored bark over the ground covering. It's not expensive and one can buy it in plastic bags for easy handling. If you do, some weed seeds are bound to blow in and take root. They're easily pulled up since the roots aren't very deep or you can even shoot it again (next year) with roundup...

[nohorn]

Thank You:Now I know what to do! What would I do without AB! and Clanad

[modeller]

I did a similar thing but with raised beds . I put down black plastic and covered it with slabs . They keep the plastic in place and are easy to keep tidy and almost free from weeds . I had tried bark but you still get weeds albeit shallow rooted and the bark is easily disturbed by cats and foxes and just walking on it . You can get small decorative slabs or of course bricks in different colours.