The garden is in its third year and doing fine. Weeds have not been a problem in my beds, although I get them in the paths a little bit. I have mats made out of recycled tires rolled out to cover the paths between the beds. What weeds do come up are easily pulled.
I have a 6 foot wire fence around the garden. The deer broke in the first winter -- not over the fence, right through the gate. (The latch had rusted). They damaged the fence trying to get out. My husband straightened it up, and I tied flourescent streamers around the top. We've had no more trouble with those varmints. Woodchucks have not bothered the garden, although we have them here. I do have a layer of rabbit fencing around the bottom.
This is a picture taken last year at the height of the growing season.
You can see the crimps in the fence used to straighten the wire where the deer bent the fence trying to get out. In the first picture, you can see the gate "latch" I constructed to keep the gate closed after the deer broke the latch on the arbor gate. Actually the latch rusted through and broke right off allowing the deer access. They did the damage to the fence trying to get out.