Do you look forward to gardening every summer only to get frustrated when weeds take over your lawn and landscape beds? I'll be the first to admit - I really, really hate to pull weeds. I love gardening, but weeds can get me out of the mood quicker than anything else.

The other problem is that I don't like chemical-based herbicides at all. I don't like the potential they have to harm the environment and I don't like having them around my family or my pets. That left me with two choices - pull weeds all the time or find some form of natural weed control that would actually work. 

Luckily for me (and the well-being of my garden), after lots of searching, I was able to find two completely natural solutions that make dealing with weeds much, much more simple. 

The first is called corn gluten. Actually a by-product of corn milling, corn gluten is completely natural and safe and kills the weeds before they germinate. It works by drying out the seeds and can be used on the lawn and in flower beds. The best thing about this natural weed control is that it doubles as a fertilizer for plants and grass that are already growing. The only potential drawback is that it will also dry out the seeds of plants that you actuallly want to grow, so if you're using corn gluten, you'll want to start seeds indoors. Overall, it's an amazing form of natural weed control and I use it religiously twice a year. You can read more about corn gluten here. 

Another product I've started using in my garden on weeds that have already sprouted is distilled white vinegar. I'd been using vinegar for cleaning for a long time, but never knew that it could work to kill weeds. The acid in household vinegar is perfect for getting rid of most types of weeds. All you've got to do it put it in a spray bottle and then spray the weeds, just like you would with Round Up or another commercial product. You do have to be careful that you don't get vinegar on your plants though, because it doesn't know the difference between weeds and flowers and will kill anything it comes into contact with. I always make sure to treat weeds on a calm day and use cardboard to protect my plants!