Goats. Just kidding, they'll eat all your flowers too and trample the garden. At my last house I used boiling water on some weeds in sidewalk cracks and that worked pretty effectively, but slow going back and forth to the house to boil water. I had tried vinegar and has some success, but that does change your soil ph in that area.

Any product that kills something is not really safe for anything.

While boiling water will kill top growth it is quite dangerous if not handled with great care.

Vinegar, horticultural grade (20 percent acetic acid) will also kill off top growth, but can cause sever burns if not handled with great care. The vinegar sold for salad dressing (5 percent acetic acid) is not nearly as effective but will not burn you. Vinegar is also a mild antibiotic, ie.l it kills some bacteria, molds and mildews, and is also an mild antiviral.

How to eliminate unwanted plants, aka "weeds", depends on what you have and where they are. The best method of controlling these unwanted plants in cracks in sidewalks, driveways, etc. is to remove the soil that accumulates there so these plants have no place to root. In the lawn growing a good thick turf, which means making a good healthy soil, and mowing high can help. In the garden good mulches will help.

Spraying plant poisons does great harm to our environment and may be a factor in some of our health problems today. Glyphosate products are now on the World Health Organizations list of possible carcinogens, along with many others.

kimmq is kimmsr

"Spraying plant poisons does great harm to our environment"
Humans existing is doing great harm to the environment. We should all be sterilized and return the world to its natural state.

But seriously, if you have to use acetic acid 20%, fine, but be aware you might need a trip to the emergency room if you accidently spray it in your eyes or someone elses. Yet, somehow, this is "safer" than just using roundup LOL. Hilarious how much politically-correct hysteria there can be over something so innocuous when used correctly.
(which is the key point: some kids huff starting fluid and paint solvents: that doesn't mean we should ban those things. Some people STILL dump used motor oil, that doesn't mean we should ban motor oil. Some people talk on their cell phones while driving, that doesn't mean we should ban cell phones)

Thanks you all for the great advice. I will work on establishing and maintaining a healthy lawn to avoid the use of poisons.

David, we know that long term exposure to low levels of some substances is as bad as short term exposure to high levels of the same substance, for example Carbon Monoxide. The substance builds up in your system until toxicity is reached.

The major problem is getting people to use these products correctly.

kimmq is kimmsr