4 Natural Weed Killers to Use in Your Garden

Before we can get the furniture out of the shed and get the family around for a BBQ (post-lockdown, obviously), we simply must attack those weeds in the garden we’ve been putting off for most of the year.

While it’s not the most glamorous job, Karen Murphy from Garden News says, “Now is a good time to weed as warmth and sun mean they grow more and need curbing, though good weed management lasts all year.”

“There are certain weeds that are a nuisance, such as a bindweed, horsetail, and ground elder (more in allotments and wild gardens) and they need pulling up regularly to remove as much root as possible.”

Before you go gung-ho on your uninvited garden guests, consider whether they might add a little something to your garden.

Liz Potter, editor of Garden Answers, says, “We like to be organic as much as possible on Garden Answers — if you think about it, a weed is often just a misunderstood wildflower growing in the wrong place, and even dandelions can be an important source of nectar for early bees on the wing.”

“Having said that, there are lots of tools to help you take them out by hand, without recourse to chemical weed killers, including those electronic gadgets that use a flame to scorch them to ash.

“Another very easy tool to use is a long-handled hoe, which might seem a bit old fashioned but really they’re so easy to use, just scratching over the soil surface around plants to loosen the roots of small weeds. On a dry, breezy day you can just leave the weed on the soil surface to wilt and die.”

Boiling Water

This works best on young weeds. Take a kettle of boiling water and pour it on small weeds that are growing through cracks in the patio or path. This method might take several attempts to kill off any weeds, but it will eventually work. It’s also good for the rest of your garden and soil as it won’t cause any damage to it.

Rock Salt

Sprinkle some rock salt around the edge of your lawn to kill any weeds around the perimeter of your garden. This works great for those hard to reach areas your lawnmower can’t cut. The salt works to dehydrate the plant leaves so that the roots can’t take up any more moisture into the plant and eventually, the plant dies off.

A Trowel

There’s sometimes nothing better for attacking weeds than going back to basics with a trowel and some hard-wearing gardening gloves and attacking weeds at the root.

Vinegar

It’s best to use the horticultural kind for a fast-acting natural weed killer. Just use with caution as vinegar will kill anything that is green! There are a number of home solutions you can create using vinegar including vinegar and lemon juice, salt and vinegar, and soap.

This article originally appears on our sister site, Yours.