1. Use narrow beds about 3-4 ft across so that you can easily reach them
from both sides (less leaning and thus back strain).
2. Mulch fallow sections so that the weeds don't have a chance to sprout.
3. Do a little and often.
4. If they get away on you on fallow ground, let the weeds get high, let
the bed dry out completely for as long as you can (or cover the bed in
clear plastic so it can) then water well and the next day go through it
and pull out the weeds - they'll come out easily in great handfulls.
5. If you can, do it at the seedling weed stage when a mere ground
disturbance is enough to destroy their fragile roots - this is when I use
an old kitchen knife to do that job (I used to use an old concrete trowel
till I lost that)..
6. Get good knee pads and get down and dirty amongst the weeds. Hoes are
too distant for the job IMHO.
7. Dandelions can be killed with a tiny drop of weedkiller or otherwise
mulch them and each time you see even the tiniest bit of green poking
through, lift up the mulch and drop it back again to starve it of light,
it'll eventually die but the mulch must be thick and constantly watched.

HTH

Thanks for the detailed reply.

3. Little and often sounds a better strategy than mine - big blitz every few
weeks.

4. I'll remember about letting overgrown weeds dry out then soak and pull
following day. Will this help get tap roots too?

5. Yes, definitely better to polish them off at the seedling stage than
fight forests of full grown weeds.

7. I'll have a go applying glyphosate with an artists paint brush on
persistent weeds with deep tap roots. They always seem to grow right next to
the veg knowing they are safe from being dug out.

Norman Digger.