The usual responses for the weeds is to put a cover, like a plastic cover for weeds. It does work for a little bit but the weeds would eventually pop up.

Many people recommend putting instead cardboardand newspaper. Lots of it.

In my case what has worked is lots of round up... so here is the deal. I tried hand pulling but after a while I realized that by pulling I am moving the soil around giving opportunity for more weeds and also in many cases I was not able to get the whole root system.

Plastic .. since it does not degrade, it would eventually become a mess (more if you need to put more plants or replace existing ones). Cardboard... mm.. not sure about it.. I tried it but I had not enough so I only put 1 sheet of cardboard with gaps.. so it did not really work..
I tried becoming "green" .. but honestly, not sure how being green and have no weeds.. I don't think it is possible..

So I ended up with roundup and here is why:
It kills the weeds with not moving the soil. eventually what is planted becomes bigger and stringer. and the soil around becomes more compact and less weed friendly...

When spraying it, sometime I use a piece of cardboard to protect the plants I don't want to kill.

For ants, I plan to use termidor. I used it in Florida and it did work. I moved a few months ago and would order it online. nice about it is that it doe snot kill on contact and is scent free. what it means is .. it allows ants to come and go, but when they walk over the sprayed area they get microgranules that they transport to the colony, this way it kills the whole colony and not just the ones walking by.