Organic Weed Control - Staying Green While Making Weeds Brown

You look out across your beautiful flowers or your vegetable garden and mixed in between them are areas of green that you did not plant. They are weeds. Do not get me wrong weeds do contribute to the eco system. Weeds hold and protect bare soil from erosion, they provide a habitat for insects that are beneficial to our environment, and they hold medicinal qualities. The only problem with our little friends the weeds is the compete with our other plants for space, water and nutrients in your garden. There are ways to prevent weeds from becoming a problem and that is removing them before they produce seeds. Almost every weed in your lawn or garden can produce thousands of offspring. The seeds produced may not produce weeds for years until the day you hoe or till your garden, bringing them to the surface and then you have a weed invasion. You want to get rid of the weeds but also stay as green as possible. Chemical herbicides can create health risks as well as damage the environment. They also are not that effective in killing weeds. Do not feel all is lost though; there are many safe and easy organic ways to get rid of weeds in your lawn or garden.

Mulch, mulch and more mulch... Mulch your garden using weed-free mulches. This is one of the best ways to prevent weed infestation. Some of the best choices for mulch are straw, leaves or grass clippings but only grass clippings from herbicide free yards. Grass clippings are great because they provide a slow-release fertilizer as they decompose due to the fact they contain four percent nitrogen. Another good source is straw because it contains very few weed seeds after the grain has been thrashed.

Burning down the weeds Organic farmers do what is called "flame weeding", they use propane-gas burners that sear the leaves and cause the weeds to wilt and die. This can be safely done because the burners produce a careful and directed flame.

Corn gluton application Corn gluten is a nontoxic, plant based herbicide. It is a byproduct of corn processing that provides nitrogen to the soil and kills germinating weeds. Corn gluten is mostly used with transplants and not directs seeding because it can kill seeds. You can purchase corn gluten products at most garden-supply stores.

Letting your garden go stale For direct-seeded plants, "stale-bedding" is a good option. The same way you let bread go stale you let the garden go stale. You just let it sit there, then water the bed and when a crop of weeds start to come up you kill them by flame weeding as mentioned earlier or with a cultivating hoe whichever causes the least amount of soil disturbance. What you are trying to do is exhaust the weed seeds in the top inch or so of the soil without causing new weeds to be brought to the surface. This makes it possible to grow even slow germinating crops, which includes many flowers and herbs.