Original Down East

There is no such thing as an organic weedkiller, and whatever may be claimed about the safety of chemical weedkillers, there is always danger in their use. If there wasn't, there would be no need for the elaborate testing and strict controls enforced by governments. Chemical manufacturers have, however, tried to persuade us that we must follow the commercial grower in soaking our plants and our soil with poisons when there are very few advantages and many dangers in doing so. The commercial grower's problem is just not the same as ours, and there is no doubt that prolonged use of chemicals has a very damaging effect on soil organisms. It may seem attractive to use a chemical to kill everything in a new garden so that you can start clean and stay on top of the weeds. It is certainly an easier way out, but it is done at the risk of killing the beneficial inhabitants of the soil and even harming yourself. At a horticultural research station in England a few years ago, during a quite unconnected experiment on soils, it was noticed that in the soil on land that had been regularly treated with a paraquat/diquat mixture there were no earthworms. Subsequent examination revealed that most other beneficial soil organisms were either reduced in numbers or not present.

Whether you are trying to clear a new garden of weeds, or deal with their habitual menace in an established one, there are many physical methods of weed control. The basic principles to remember all the time are as follows:
All green plants must have access to sunshine to survive. There are a variety of light-deprivation measures that can be used by the organic gardener to control weeds.

Constant vigilance is very important; remove weeds as soon as you see them. Regular hoeing will deny persistent weeds a foothold.

Never let weeds flower or seed. Cutting them down and digging out the roots takes a moment, while coping with the hundreds of seedlings they may disperse is a time-consuming job.