1. Create a barrier between weed seeds in your soil and the sun. Mulch might be the best way for an organic gardener to stop weeds before they start. You can also use fabric or plastic sheeting underneath the mulch, but make sure these coatings are water-permeable, and try to choose biodegradable materials over plastics.
2. If you compost, make sure your pile is hot and stirred often. You CAN compost whole weeds in an average compost heap without weed seeds surviving and germinating once you apply the compost to your beds, but you have to make sure that the compost is hot enough to destroy those seeds. Do this by maintaining a balanced pile that has plenty of air and water. Stir it often, and when you put pulled weeds into the pile, stir them into the center of the pile where they will cook the fastest.
3. Water selectively. This might not be possible in every garden's arrangement, but if you can water only the plants that you want to survive, do that. It is possible to starve the other plants (IE: weeds) in this fashion. Also when you do water, make it infrequent and deep, if you anticipate trouble with weeds. This give the water advantage to your established, deep-rooted plants instead of the smaller, shorter-rooted, scraggly weeds.
4. Space your plants well during planting. Making sure that your plants, when mature, will cover up the spaces in between the plants with their natural vegetative growth is a good way to keep weeds down to a manageable level. Big, open areas in your garden give weeds favorable spots to grow. The idea is to have your plants cast their shadows on the dirt under them.
5. Where possible, use transplants rather than seeds. An advantage of transplants is they have a growth advantage over weeds, and can grow fast enough to crowd weeds out — out-competing them for resources like water and sun.
6. Employ cover plants. Some plants are known as "ground cover." They're used by gardeners to cover up all available dirt at the bottom of the bed, so it looks nice, but they offer an additional advantage of taking up space that might have otherwise gone to weeds.
7. Weed when the soil is wet. This will make the work easier on you, and it will help ensure that you can pull out all of the weeds you pull — roots and all. If you leave enough weed root in the ground, chances are they will make a comeback. Ever see that same dandelion come back in your yard again and again? Dandelions have deep, sturdy taproots, and you need to pull up as much of it as possible.
8. Know your garden. If you're a beginner gardener, you might not always be able to tell the difference between a plant you want and a plant you don't. So familiarize yourself both with common weeds, and the plants you're growing this season. Take pictures. Know what they'll look like once they've grown a bit. Some storebought plants come with ID tags. Keep those and stick them into the bed next to that plant so you don't lose track of what you've planted.
9. Catch them when they're young. I am sometimes a lazy gardener, and I let weeds go a bit. But the thing is, they never stay small. Their roots dig in deeper, and they spread out. If you wait too long, they'll start scattering seeds around. That's what they do — it's why they're so prevalent in the first place. So pluck weeds when they're young.
10. Give 'em a good shaking. Once you've plucked a weed, particularly one with a hairy or fibrous root system, you'll notice that they take great clumps of dirt from your beds. Shake off as much of the soil this weed stole from you from its roots before discarding it. Then smooth your soil back down, and consider covering the "divot" with some mulch to prevent future weeds from taking root in the same place.
11. Use chemical herbicides only as a last resort. I think these products are more trouble than they're worth. They're expensive, and they often aren't selective enough to avoid harming your garden or soil in some way. However, if you disagree with me, at least know what you're using. Look at the active ingredients and consider doing a little homework on those chemicals. And whatever you do, don't apply something as harsh as Round-Up to a flower bed. It will kill anything it touches, and "salt the earth" so nothing grows there for a long time.
12. Continue weeding at the end of the season. After your garden has closed up shop for the season, it would be a mistake to allow any weeds to take up residence there. They'll only go to seed and make next season much harder on you. I've made this mistake before. Pull the weeds, and for good measure you might consider giving the entire bed a little hoeing just to stir things up and disturb any weed seeds that might be trying to set themselves up for next season.
Finally, I just wanted to say that it's pretty easy to go OCD about weeds. In a way, they're like an invading plague, so getting a bit paranoid or taking it personally is something that happens to dedicated gardeners who've invested so much time in something only to see it ruined by ugly and destructive weeds. Set your own rules for what you and your garden can live with. Keep in mind that while a thick growth of weeds will rob your plants of nutrients and even potentially smother them, the occasional weed will not utterly destroy your garden. Just don't let it get out of control — in either direction.
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