How to Grow an Organic Garden Without Weeds

The entire point of organic gardening is to grow vegetables only using the earth. Because of this, chemical weed killers are not acceptable to use in an organic garden. If you want to avoid weeds when growing vegetables or fruit but don't want to use chemicals, read on to find out how.

Step 1 - Landscape

Use a rope or 2x4 boards to mark out a spot in your backyard or land to define where you want your garden to be. Using a tiller or shovel (though a tiller will be easier), dig up the ground within those boundaries. Remove the dirt so that the garden is four inches deep. The dirt will need to be transported to a different location; in order to make it useable next year, it is recommended to move it into a compost bin or a section of your property devoted to composting.

Step 2 - Neutralizing

You will need to kill off the weed seeds and roots that are in the ground under and around the garden. Though non-organic farmers will use chemicals, you can't use them. The best solution is heat. In order to generate enough heat (in a reasonable amount of time), I use fire. Line the bottom of the garden with thin (half in or so) sticks that are dry, then cross them with slightly larger sticks. Cover them with dry grass, hay, twigs, or any other dry brush.

Get a garden hose with a pressurized nozzle, as well as a five gallon bucket with water ready in case the fire gets out of control (there shouldn't be enough wood in the garden to make a large fire, however).

Light the tinder using a butane lighter, or a match - don't toss the match in the garden, however, as the tip will have toxic residue on it. Allow the fire to burn the wood down to ash, then let the embers smolder until they are cool. The heat from the fire should kill off the roots and seeds around the garden.

Now that the fire has removed the moisture from the surrounding ground, pour boiling water into the garden. This will kill seeds father in the ground than the fire could penetrate, ensuring that no weeds thrive.

Step 3 - Prevention

Now that you've eliminated the weeds inside the garden, you will need to keep them from entering from nearby. To do this, line the edges of the garden with thick rocks. This will stop the roots from nearby weeds from burrowing into the garden.

Step 4 - Top Soil

Unless you have a compost pile that was properly maintained to ensure the no living seeds are in it, use either dirt from the garden that has been heated in an over or over a fire, or top soil from a store that is guaranteed to be seed-free (the last option is expensive).

In order to destroy the seeds in the dirt, place it on a pan and either place the pan over a fire or on cookie sheets in the oven. Depending on the size of your garden, using the oven may not be an option.

Once the dirt has been heated, spread it through the garden so that it is level with the ground again. It is devoid of nutrients at this point, so you will need to fertilize it. The best way to do this is to add food scraps, such as egg shells, vegetable peels, fruit peels and cores, dead leaves, etc.

Step 5 - Mulch

Use wood chip or mulch around the plants to help reduce the likelihood of a new seed introduced to the garden.