Hi

I joined a community garden. We promote organic gardening and I am looking for any organic weed control method that works.

Are you looking to kill weeds in an area you want to plant in or just rid them for a non planting area? You can use vinegar, bleach and saltwater but these will also kill anything they touch as well as the weeds, and the saltwater can hurt the soil as well.
Hand pulling is the safest option if the weeds are near plants you want to keep.
Recently I pulled weeds and then covered the area with landscape fabric and then covered with wood chips and left it all to rot for a season. I can then cut openings in the fabric and plant next year.
You could also hand pull and then cover the area with clear plastic and solarize the soil:
http://www.uidaho.edu/ag/plantdisease/soilsol.htm

anndigitalis' suggestion of hand pulling (who said organic gardening was 'easy'?) and applying a thick layer of a mulch like shredded leaves, grass clippings, hay, finely ground wood chips or landscape fabric, is the best way to go - organically.

I'd be leery of the clear plastic though. Yes, it'll bake and fry weeds in that soil. But it'll also do the same to any beneficial microherds residing in that soil too. Personally (and I know there's others who will disagree on this) I'd only use the clear or black plastic if I truly had to solarize the soil to combat a known problem with, say, root knot nematodes.

Never, ever pour bleach on any plant. Even though it will kill plants it will also seriously harm the soil bacteria since bleach is a bacteria stat, killer.
The simplest way to control "weeds" is to plunk down some newspaper and cover the newspaper with a mulch, and that is even safer than hand pulling of the "weeds" a process that may disrupt the roots of the plants you want to keep.
Solarizing soil might work in New Jersey but most likely will not much further north because of the time (12 weeks) necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by Kimm1:
Solarizing soil might work in New Jersey but most likely will not much further north because of the time (12 weeks) necessary.

Good point, Kimm. The time necessary for such a 'project' might be dependent on the area of the country one lives in. I wouldn't really know how long something like that would take in New Jersey, since I've never done it. Mostly, for the reasons I mentioned above.

Has anyone tried corn gluten to control new weeds from seed? I tried in on the lawn, but the dandelions appeared to be entirely unaffected.

M

Maggie, just do a Search here for "CGM" or "Corn Gluten Meal". You'll be reading for a week.

Amidst the info you'll read, you'll see that timing and application rate is all important for CGM to work best. Since dandelions are perennials, the time to apply the CGM for perennial weeds is early fall. Annual weed prevention by using CGM is applied in early spring or when the forsythias are in bloom in your area. And don't skimp on the rate of application. 20lbs/1000 sq.ft. is what's recommended.

I want to try this too, next year, to see if will stop the Norway Maples from popping up all over the yard. grrrrrrr. A friend of mine in TX said she used it and it works well for her to prevent Red Oak seedlings.
Anne

gardenz, thanks for the great info, I'm sure I used it in late spring.

Maggie