Weed Control for Organic Gardening

Simply pulling weeds from your flower and vegetable garden is the original organic method. There are a variety of hoes and implements you can use to make the task easier. Use the right tool for the job. For example, a perennial clump weed can be lifted with a garden fork and moved to the compost pile, roots and all. Newly sprouted annual weeds can be sliced away just below the soil surface with a hoe.

Growing potatoes can help with weed control. You till the soil deeply to prepare the potato furrow, removing weeds as you do so. As the potato plants grow, you keep the smaller weeds pulled, then the larger potato plants shade out weed growth. When it is time to dig your potato crop, you are again turning the soil, and the spent vines can be returned to the soil or the compost pile. This can eliminate perennial weeds from the row area.

Vinegar sprayed on plants will kill them. Carefully spray only weeds. A stronger concentration of acid may be desirable for quicker kill or stronger weeds, and you can boil down 5% table vinegar to increase the acid content.

A layer of mulch makes good weed control. It deprives emergent weeds of light, and most of them will not grow through. Some organic mulch materials are grass clippings and straw; pine needles are used for acid-loving plants. Even newspaper can be shredded and used as mulch. Earthworms will work organic mulch down into the soil, enriching it and adding humus.

An organic pre-emergent weed control that you can apply in a granular form is available under several brand names. It is corn-gluten, and it also provides nitrogen to the soil since it is a corn protein.