Pull weeds before they set seeds! Removing weeds by manually pulling them from the ground is the most common form of organic weed control. It's easy to do, doesn't pollute the environment with toxins, and is also cost effective because it's free. What is the best way to manually pull weeds? Grab the plant close to the ground, encircling it's leaves with the fingers of one hand. Take a small-bladed knife or sharp-edged hand trowel with your other hand and use it in the soil to slide under the roots of the weed to loosen them and help remove the plant from the soil. Use care to avoid disturbing the surrounding soil, mulch, or leaf litter to prevent bringing deeply buried weed seeds closer to the surface where they could sprout. Hand pulled weeds can be left on the ground to break down where they are except for any that have developing or mature seeds. Developing or mature seeds should be cut from the plants and bagged for curbside disposal. Any weed with parts that could possibly re-sprout from their nodes (such as Honeysuckle ~ Lonicera japonica or perennial Morning Glory ~ Ipomoea indica) should also be removed and bagged for curbside disposal.

"What is intensive planting?" Intensive planting is a way to grow plants by placing them close together in a garden. Their spacing is generally closer together than traditionally recommended distances. "How does it work?" As the plants mature their leaves begin to shade the ground. This helps to control the growth of weeds. Airborne weed seeds won't be able to take hold in a clear patch of ground. Weed seeds won't receive adequate sunlight for germination. Young weed seedlings will be crowded out or smothered by the leaves of larger growing plants. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I usually space young transplants about six inches apart. As the plants mature they grow in very tightly, filling any space between them, and that shades the ground reducing the amount of weeds I have to pull. Intensive planting combined with a layer of mulch has been very successful for me in reducing my weed chores! I love it! Trudi

Plastic is not a good idea in an organic garden for several reasons starting with limiting the exchange of air in the soil. Newspaper or cardboard works just as well at cutting off access to sunlight those plants need to grow and also contributes some organic matter to the soil that plastic will not. Hand weeding is also a good method as pointed out by floral, but any mulch material used, shredded leaves, wood chips, shredded bark needs to be thick enough (3 inches minimum if no other sunlight blocker is used) to block a plants access to sunlight.

Because it has arsenic in it. But arsenic is not very poisonous, especially in small amounts, and the FDA decided rice is perfectly safe (after causing a scare, which I'm still wondering why they did that in the first place). All anyone really needs to say about brown rice is CA grown has lower levels of arsenic than southeast grown like Louisiana, and you can rinse the rice first if you want to.