It’s no surprise that weeds are unappealing in a yard — they just keep popping up, making any efforts to terminate them seem pointless. It’s a laborious and arduous process having to bend over and pull them out all the way to the root; luckily, there are natural remedies that may do the trick to rid your yard of pesky weeds.
If you’re the type of person who doesn’t like chemicals or having to spend money on clearing out weeds, natural weed-killing methods may be perfect for you. For instance, you can pour boiling water over weeds to clear them out. While this may seem time-consuming having to boil the water, you can easily make this work into your routine using the leftover water to boil corn on the cob, cook up some pasta, or make tea. All you have to do is pour the water directly on the weeds. Just be careful and make sure kids or small animals aren’t around — you don’t want them to possibly get burned!
In addition, you can use rock salt, which is the salt you put on your driveway in winter. It gets into the cracks and crevices of your sidewalk and works to stop weeds from sprouting. However, be careful because this will potentially make the area barren, so make sure there are no grass patches or plants near where you put the salt. Also, it’s worth noting that bleach has the same effect. Simply pour bleach onto cracks and crevices containing weed patches. This will kill your plants too, so be sure not go get the bleach on them. If you do happen to get some bleach on your plants, rinsing the plant off with a hose should be enough to save the day.
There are a few mixtures you can put in spray bottles that will rid your yard of weeds. Vinegar is highly effective for natural weed killing. To utilize this natural weed killer, create a mixture that’s one-part water and one-part vinegar and put it into an empty spray bottle. After that, spray the liquid onto the weeds and they should start disappearing the next day and be dead in a few more. What’s more, dish soap is a surprising weed killing remedy. For this one, mix one part dish soap and one part water and pour the whole thing into a spray bottle. Then, simply spray a heavy mist onto the weeds.
Planting ground cover plants smothers weeds and prevents new ones from growing. When multiple plants are planted in one area, they all fight for the necessary vitamins and nutrients to keep them alive. Healthier, bigger plants will steal the weeds’ vital water and nutrients, causing them to wither.
Covering weeds with newspaper will prevent sunlight from reaching the plants. In order to utilize this technique, four layers or so are recommended for optimal blockage. Also, the thicker the layer of paper, the more effective the method is, and in a few days they should disappear. Also, it’d be worth your while to place objects such as tin or coffee cans over the top of the newspaper so the paper won’t fly away.
Using cornmeal gluten may also prevent new weeds from sprouting. In fact, not only does cornmeal gluten stop new weeds from sprouting, it may break them down into nitrogen, which will help fertilize your lawn! Corn meal won’t kill existing weeds though, but you won’t need to worry about new ones.
No matter what method you choose, natural weed killing is certainly less expensive and uses fewer harmful chemicals that conventional methods. Weeds don’t have to take over your yard; they don’t need to consume your sunny days either with back-braking pain.
Written by Clark Jones, owner of Tree Frog Complete Grounds Maintenance. Tree Frog is the best company for lawn care Columbia MO has to offer.
