Winter Prep?

[sjonathan]

Bear with me, I am new.
I recently bought a house that has a vegetable garden. I am super excited and making plans now for the spring.

Right now it has a bunch of last season's tomato plants, and a lot of tall weeds.

What should I do in the winter time to lessen the weeds/prep in the spring? Is there something I can cover it with? Is there a spray or pre-emergent that I need to use?

 

[Meadowlark]

Remove all the old plants and weeds being careful not to allow weed seeds loose on your garden soil. Immediately overseed the space with a cereal rye e.g. winter rye and some clover. Let it grow until spring when you can turn that cover under/into the soil and have a ready to plant garden. That is what I would do.