There are several ways to go about controlling weeds in your vegetable garden. As stated previously, preventitive measures should always be first, as these can greatly reduce the amount of hand-pulling you have to do later.
In my opinion, chemical weed killers simply aren't among the choices in a vegetable garden.
Weeds can kill a gardener's enthusiasm, and cause many to abandon the garden in midsummer. It is important to control weeds while they are small and before they get out of control.
Since any plant growing out of place can be considered a weed, a sweet corn plant (from a carelessly dropped seed) growing in a row of bush snap beans is technically a weed; but the most common garden weeds are crabgrass, yellow and purple nutsedge, morningglories, bermudagrass, coffee weed, and pigweed.
Natural Weed Killing Agents
Organic Weed Control
If you must spray, there's are some new, citrus-based natural weed killers that are totally safe for use in the garden. Check with your local nursery and garden center to see if they carry these organic weed killers products. Citrus-based weed killers are highly effective when sprayed on young, tender weeds popping up in your vegetable garden. Not only do they kill weeds safely, they do the job in less than an hour! These products can also be useful in landscape beds.
Corn gluten is another safe product listed for use in vegetable gardens. Corn gluten is a weed preventer. It works by killing weed seeds before they sprout. Only problem with using this product is if you plant your vegetables from seed. Corn gluten may kill vegetable seeds as well.
