Last Updated on January 10, 2023
Deciding to make your own weed killer rather than relying on commercial herbicides can be a great idea for some homeowners. A DIY weed killer is a fantastic product for upgrading your lawn care regimen, and it might not need to cost a fortune either.
There are various recipes and family strategies for killing unwanted weeds while protecting the plants around your garden. Today, we’re going to explore some top ideas on how to make weed killer at home. We’ll also offer some advice on what you can do to make your solutions more effective.
What Is the Best Natural Weed Killer?
There are more natural weed killer options available than you might think. For instance, keeping your lawngrass longer will naturally kill weeds by making it harder for them to work their way up through the soil. Adding mulch or ground cover to the area you want to protect is helpful, too, as it stops dandelions and weed seeds from sprouting.
There are also plenty of homeowners that prefer to avoid herbicide entirely. After all, chemicals in products like round up can get rid of the weeds in your sidewalks and grass faster, but they could also damage other plants and flowers around your home. You might even be nervous that a chemical ingredient in your weed killer could harm your pets or family members.
One great homemade recipe for people who want to avoid chemicals features a gallon of vinegar, a cup of salt, and a tablespoon of dishwashing soap. All you need to do is combine the water and salt with the dishwashing soap liquid in a spray bottle. Ideally, you’ll want a bottle that allows you to switch between a spray or stream.
Direct the bottle towards the small area that you want to cover and add a little bit of the recipe at a time. Don’t go crazy with this solution as the water can easily soak into the soil, and it doesn’t know the difference between weeds and flowers, like other selective weed killers.
Other Weed Killing Solutions
If you’re looking for more natural weed-killing solutions to keep your gardens free of chemicals, there are a handful of options to choose from. For instance, nothing quite protects your garden and kills weeds like laying down some newspaper after you’ve used a weed whacker to address the weeds in the cracks of your sidewalks, grass and surrounding areas.
Your newspaper is one of the easiest solutions for gardens. It blocks the sun from getting to the seeds and stops the weed from growing. On the other hand, this also means that the other plants in your garden won’t be able to grow either. If you don’t have a newspaper, try using a landscaping fabric instead.
Other options include:
Boiling Water
Boiling water is one of the simplest ways to kill weeds. You can easily kill weeds in cracks and sidewalks with this solution. Take a pot of boiling water and pour it on the weeds. None of the weeds in your concrete cracks should survive this process.
Lemon Juice
Another option is to use acetic acid in lemon juice. You can make an excellent set of weed killer recipes with lemon juice or acetic acid vinegar. Just fill a bottle and spray the natural weed killer inside onto the leaves. Avoid adding this substance directly to the soil. This DIY weed killer should dry the leaves and kill weeds by preventing them from getting energy from the sun.
Use Manual Methods
You can also protect against garden weeds without using any chemicals, vinegar, or boiling water. Just use a spade and your fingers to carefully remove the weeds from your garden. This method will take more time than using a weed-killing solution, but it means you can control which plants get damaged.
Try Salt
Table salt, otherwise known as sodium chloride, is a great weed killer. Using table salt mixed with hot water or vinegar will rapidly kill weeds. However, table salt also has a habit of killing other plants in your garden too. It could also make it harder for plants to grow in your soil after using salt.
What Kills Weeds Permanently?
Experimenting with vinegar weed killer, salt, and acidic substances in your recipes will usually help you to find homemade weed killers that get rid of weeds for a long time. Bleach, for instance, kills most weeds, but it doesn’t work against brambles and knotweed. Unfortunately, bleach also stops plants from growing in the same soil in the future.
When you’re searching through the content that gardeners post online, pay attention to the impact each weed killer will have on the environment. You don’t want to ‘salt the earth’ and prevent future growth.
The best weed killers don’t harm your soil. Look for something that can remove weeds while giving you great earth long-term.
Usually, even with the best homemade weed killers, you will need to go back and apply extra doses. It helps to set aside time and frequently work on removing any weeds that might have continued growing in your garden.
Weeds can be persistent. Perennial weeds and specific growths are often problematic.
Does Vinegar Kill Chickweed?
Usually, homemade weed killer contains a combination of water and vinegar. When it comes to organic gardening, vinegar is great for getting rid of plants you don’t want. A vinegar weed killer also doesn’t damage the soil long-term like other recipes. However, it’s also worth remembering that you may need a different homemade weed killer to remove different kinds of plants.
Vinegar is a great way to control all kinds of weed, including chickweed. You can remove various kinds of weeds with vinegar, particularly distilled white vinegar weed killer. However, you may need to apply your vinegar weed killer spray to the plants you want to remove a few times before you see the full results.
Keep in mind that because vinegar is non-selective, it can be better for weeds growing in specific areas. If you want to kill a few weeds around a nearby lamppost, or you want to remove weeds from the cracks in your sidewalk, then vinegar is a good choice. Alternatively, for large patches of grass, using more vinegar as your main ingredient could damage your entire garden.
For larger coverage, it might be better off to use safer substances like mulch to prevent weeds from growing up between cracks in grass coverage. You can find more information online if you’re using vinegar as a specific weed killer recipe to get rid of certain growths.
Tips for Better Natural Weed Killers
Finding information online on the best way to create a natural weed killer recipe is a great way to maintain your garden. If you collect the right information, you can find a way of getting rid of weeds without having to worry about your precious plants fighting each other for the chance to stay alive.
You may be surprised to learn that there are a lot of different recipe options out there for natural weed killer, ranging from vinegar-based products to those that use cornmeal and acidic substances. The best way to find a solution that works for you is often to experiment with different recipes. The following tips should also help you to make the most out of your products:
Aim At the Roots
Always apply your weed killing recipes directly to the roots of the weed to prevent them from growing back. Remember that you may need to apply the substance to the weeds more than once to achieve the best results.
Use Mulch
Using bark mulch and other substances around the plants in your garden will stop weeds from breaking through the soil. It means you don’t have to take as many risks with homemade weed killers and vinegar that may harm your other plants.
Manually Remove Weeds at the Right Times
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If you’re manually removing weeds, make sure you do so after it rains. This should soften the ground so you can remove the weeds a lot faster. Pulling the heads off weeds before using your homemade weed killers will stop them from spreading as quickly.
Mind the Gaps
Remember that plants and shrubs should be allowed to grow close together. It will stop weeds from breaking through between the plants. If you have to use a homemade weed killer in an area with very few gaps between plants, a contact killer may be better than a spray.
Know When to Apply Weed Killers
Learning when annual weeds start seeding in your garden can make it easier to target them early and prevent an initial growth. If you’re following a recipe for a homemade weed killer online, check to see if there are any tips on when you should start applying it.
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Remember, when putting your homemade weed killer in a bottle, it also helps to have a specific kind of spray bottle. The spray bottle design that allows you to adjust between a spray and stream of liquid should make it easier to focus on a specific growth patch.
Remove Weeds Naturally
Getting rid of weeds doesn’t have to be a headache. Learning how to make weed killer natural can banish unwanted growths from your garden effectively. Plus, unlike chemical weed killers, you don’t have to worry about harming the health of your family, your pets or the environment.
Have you used natural weed killers? Do you have any DIY recipes? Share them with us in the comments below.
Rebekah is a writer who loves to explore new products and find hacks that make life easier. She has a knack for all things home improvement, health and fitness. So you’ll often find her on Pinterest or browsing Houzz for ideas.
She’s always looking for the next thing to fix up around the house or what gadget might be just right for her lifestyle. Rebekah enjoys exploring new recipes, taking care of her family, and making sure she stays healthy with regular workouts at the gym.