My vegetable garden here in Tuscany was a piece of abandoned ground on the Palazzo Cervini estate and was covered in a particularly nasty perennial weed (Sambucus ebulus), as the photographs clearly show.
  Firstly, we cut the weeds down and left the organic matter to return to the soil by covering with a large sheet of permeable black plastic and letting nature do the work. Then we covered the whole area with chestnut leaves, gathered from our gravel gardens and lawns. Chestnut leaves take a long time to break down - preventing the light to arrive a the soil's surface long enough to surpress the weeds. They are, slightly acidic and are great for removing weeds because they are full of tannins that are specially designed to kill weeds under the chestnut tree itself. The acidity of the chestnut leaves slowly decreases as the leaves break down, enriching the soil with essential organic matter.
Follow the development of this vegetable garden in Italy as it develops through the year.
We still have to fence of the area from the native porcupines and wild boar and then dig over the whole area but that will all come in good time.

The entire area of the new vegetable garden had to be dug up and levelled to give us a flat working surface. My girlfriend and I set about shifting the soil by hand- with a spade and a wheelbarrow.

We then bought the fenceposts, wire and all the necessary tools to build the fence that would keep out the porcupines, deer and wild boar.

The design for the garden had to be calculated and then marked out on the soil with pegs and string, this gave us the basic structure and outlined the areas to be planted. We then dug these over again and removed the extensive and invasive root system of the dreaded weed Sambucus ebulus.

We then covered the area that we would be planting with a layer of thick cardboard, gathered from the local supermarket and covered this with a thick layer of good straw from a local farmer. This organic layer prevents any weeds from growing, reduces moisture loss and eventually rots down to make humus. It works wonders!

Our vegetable garden here in Tuscany has produced its fruits and we are now beginning to gather the harvest of the first year.

There are hunderds of tomatos from different varieties, aubergines, onions, chilli peppers and tons of basil, oregano and chives - basically everything we need. The dahlias were a gift from some friends here and brighten up the garden and house wonderfully.

The tomatoes have been turned into sauce and placed in conserving jars, the chilli's are drying and the onions will soon be hung up to dry aswell.

If you are lucky enough to get your hands one there is really no reason why any abandoned piece of healthy land cannot be turned into a thriving vegetable garden- without the use of chemicals.