Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
When using salt and vinegar/Dawn, will it kill garden plants also?
When using this to kill the weeds it will get into the soil and kill the roots of your plants. If you want to kill weeds in your garden the best way is to just pull them out. Afterwards, you can lay down some newspaper and cover this with plastic to keep the weeds out. You can add some bark on top of this. Make sure you can get enough water to the rest of your plants if you do this.
What is the best nontoxic weed killer to use and what ingredients are needed?
Hardiness Zone: 6a
By Laurie from Jackson, MI
Try using boiling water, or equal parts of bleach and water. Do not use on anything you do not want to kill, in the lawn or garden.
Vinegar or Boiling Water: Regular household Vinegar can be used or you can buy a stronger vinegar at a plant nursery. Heating the vinegar up works even better! Put the vinegar in a garden-sprayer & spray on the weeds, or pour it directly on to the soil to kill the roots.
Vinegar is more permanent & will keep most things from growing long-term, while boiling water, of course is only temporary, but it works for areas where you may want to later grow things, like weeding flower or vegetable gardens or where you may want to plant foliage or bushes at a later date.
* To boil water outside, you can use a propane camping stove, but don't leave it unattended! Not even for a second, because a child or someone's pet could get burned!
Do the environment a favor & please don't use bleach, it IS toxic!
Plain boiling water does it!!!
You can mix up a homemade weed killer solution using salt and vinegar. This page contains a salt and vinegar weed killer recipe.
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Use a mixture of vinegar and water, 1/2 and 1/2, to kill weeds. But be careful, its something like Roundup and will kill grass or any other shrubs.
We have a lot of weeds growing in the street and we would like to know some none chemical ways to kill the weeds. Our water comes from the aquifer. Carol from Hobbs, NM
I live in Colorado and we are trying to xeriscape our backyard to cut down on water usage. I have used Round-up (gasp!) in the past to control weeds, but hate the chemical idea so am looking for something natural to spray on the yard area.
Natural weed killers are simple substances with a direct and obvious action. They destroy plant life for a short period.
My neighbor has weeds that are so high that they are starting to cover my fence. I have two big dogs and don't want them sick.
