What is your best tip for getting rid of weeds.

My husband swears by placing black plstic over the garden area before planting. He then pokes holes in it to plant the garden plants. He tried the woven black mat that is sold in the garden department for this purpose, but the weeds came right through it! He buys black plastic that is sold off a roll and we have had very good luck!

I put down in my garden when I am planting newspaper. It is suppose to cut down the weeds. Of course, after a while it will breakdown and you will have to layer more on there.

Black plastic does work. If you don't want to pay the high price for the gardening black plastic, this is what I do. I just take my 30 gallon garbage bags and lay those down instead! They are alot cheaper and do the same thing. And easier to maneuver and use around small spaces. Place them in your garden and you can cut holes where you want your plants to be. And in my flower gardens I just buy some bark mulch and layer that right over the plastic. In my vegetable garden I just hold it in place with small rocks or dirt. I also use in my vegetable garden old newspapers. Place them in fairly thick layers in between the rows and cover with dirt, the best part is in the fall when things are done growing, I just mix it all back into the soil. The inks and stuff in the paper is a benefit to the soil (and the worms love it too!)

The best way to keep garden free of weeds according to me is mannually removing all the weeds. This though may sound very laborious and hardwork, this works out really well. Empty spaces in the garden are a good space for weed to grow. So filling the garden completely with all the plants we need can be useful to some extent. So amount of weed are not that bad enough i think as they add a natural look to our garden.

ok this is a great discussion and ive replied once but i checked back up on it and saw that most of you all use plastic. let me make sure im getting it right. you put the plastic down over the soil, then cut hole and plant the plant in the ground through the hole and put mulch, not more soil on top right? do you take it up every year and replace the plastic? what do you do if there is already grass where you will be laying the bag, do you try and pull it out, or do you just ignore it?