Gardening with a friend

My neighbor Bernice has a huge garden that I have always loved. I like to walk through it and ask her about everything that grows there over the last few years since I moved into the neighborhood. 
Since she had back surgery the garden took on a life of it's own, with raspberry bushes thick and deep into the landscape. I worked through walls of weeds half as tall as me! When a gardener can't get out into the dirt for awhile the natural wild will find such perfect enriched soil and decent water supply to be such a wonderful paradise to grow......I am in awe of the millions of raspberries that feed the bugs or bees in where I can not reach, after clearing away a patch of ground I got Bernice's dozen tomato plants and peppers in the ground thinking my biggest battle could be against the wall of weeds waiting for me to leave again. I asked across the thick growth of mint "Do you have a hose everything is now in the ground?" Bernice handed me a bucket saying I'll have to carry the water over. I chuckled to myself in how this once was the way people garden but since I have discovered soaking hoses and timers I enjoy the easy way to give all my plants a drink by the click of a switch. "I'll get some weed barrier to keep them from crowding the tomatoes." I mentioned as Bernice chuckled at me she explained "It won't work, since we flood irrigate the weeds will always find a way into the ground." I nodded worn out by the hard work and hot late morning it took me 4 hours to get everything in the ground and now I realized such space will win out my desire to pull weeds so if I can lessen that problem by covering up the ground then I can simply go over every other day to water and add in one of my soaker hoses too. Without water in transplanting then all this hard work will die quite quickly against such strong heat. Bernice handed me a glass of ice water while I sat back to admire the new look on her garden. "We have a long ways to go but your garden soil is wonderful, dark and rich easy to move I realize just how much clay I have in comparison." I smiled while drinking in the shade as all my work was done for the blazing afternoon sun had arrived, she chuckled back reminding me that she create this soil over a 50 year period and I wondered if I could wait that long to better my own gardens?!?!