Creator Jenji Kohan first pitched the series to HBO, which turned it down, before producer Robert Greenblatt invested and Showtime commissioned it.

According to Kohan, the title 'Weeds' refers to multiple things, including marijuana and widow's weeds, but mainly alludes to 'hardy plants struggling to survive.'

The show was conceived in the spirit of antihero-driven crime dramas like The Shield and The Sopranos, applying that antihero framework to a suburban dark comedy setting.

Exterior scenes for the first two seasons were shot almost exclusively in Stevenson Ranch in Santa Clarita Valley, California, with the town's name digitally replaced with 'Agrestic' (and later 'Majestic' and 'Regrestic') on signage.

The overhead satellite view shown at the start of the opening credits in the first three seasons is actually of Calabasas Hills, a gated community in Calabasas, California, not the fictional Agrestic.

The show was originally filmed at Red Studios (formerly Ren-Mar Studios) before moving to Universal Studios in Los Angeles for season seven, where the production is noted on the studio tour.

The season five episode 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' used a version of the show's own Wikipedia page as its introduction.

The season four finale subtly references the opening song 'Little Boxes' when a sleepy Nancy tells Shane he's going to 'become a doctor or a lawyer or a business executive.'

The opening song 'Little Boxes' by Malvina Reynolds was used for the first three seasons and returned in season eight, while season four onward mostly replaced the traditional opening with a short plot-related clip for each episode.

An extra feature on the Season Two DVD, a marijuana-based cooking show parody, was rejected by the British Board of Film Classification for being deemed likely to promote and encourage illegal drug use.

Before several seasons' premieres, early episodes leaked online in advance (notably season two and season three), and some viewers speculated the season six leak was intentional to build buzz, similar to leaks of other Showtime shows like Californication and Dexter.

A sequel series titled 'Weeds 4.20' was reported in development at Starz in 2019, intended to feature Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins reprising their roles a decade after the original series, though it later moved back to Showtime and remained uncertain as of 2023.