Re. weed control- I've got a "second" garden under my care at my parent's house, which is about 400ks from our place. I'm up there roughly once every 4-6 weeks, and have been slowily winning my Dad's veggie patch back from thick, out of control couch grass with the help of some sheets of steel cladding. I clear out any obstacles and roughly pull off some of the greenery so that the sheets can go down flat on the soil. Then I weight down the edges. By my next visit, all the tops have died and the runners can be dug out. Still a big-ish job, but achievable.
I've been putting in some vegs there to see how they go under almost complete neglect...so far, not too badly. I soak the soil thoroughly two or three times in the course of planting out a section so that it's evenly moist all through and for a bit down into the soil. Plants or seeds (preferably soaked overnight) go in and are topped off with as much mulch as I can put on without smothering them. (The mulch being assorted garden prunings.) I put a punnet of tomatoes in during an October or November visit. By my early January visit they were quite big with lots of green tomatoes, and I added a row of mixed cucurbit seeds (bush pumpkin, zucchini and cucumber/rockmelon... forgotten which) and a row of bush beans. Also tossed in some other random out of date seeds. Late February, the tomatoes were ripe, and the beans and cucrbits were flowering. (The out of date stuff didn't grow.) Put in a row of sugar snap peas... will see how they're going next time I visit, and maybe add some green vegs like silverbeet and kale. Last visit I also put in a few sweet pea and stocks seeds. Not many, but it's something.
I find my trips to their house very wearing (I'm packing up for them since they've gone into aged care), and having a bit of gardening at that end helps keep my spirits up a bit. It's only a few hours work each visit, early in the morning before it gets hot. (That routine might change a bit as the weather cools down.)
