7 ways to tackle weeds with items from the kitchen
Keep those pesky weeds from infiltrating your garden with these simple remedies you can find at home.
1. Pour boiling water on them
Use that leftover pasta or potato water and dump it straight on those tough weeds. They’ll shrivel up from the scalding water.
2. Smother them with newspaper
Cover low-growing weeds with several layers of newspaper (they’re biodegradable) and the lack of sunlight will eventually kill them.
3. Sprinkle with salt
Salt dehydrates plants and disrupts the internal water balance of plant cells making them a great weed killer. Bring a solution of one-cup salt in two cups of water to boil and then pour directly on weeds. However, use solution cautiously as salt can leave the ground barren for quite some time and damage nearby vegetation and soil.
4. Bleach them
If weeds seem to thrive in the cracks and crevices of your driveway or walkway, pour some undiluted bleach over them. After a day or two, pull them out and the bleach will stop them from growing again. Just be careful not to get bleach on the grass or plants.
5. Douse with vinegar
Douse weeds, especially weeds with long taproots like dandelions; with white or apple cider vinegar and they’ll wither in a few days.
6. Spray with WD-40
Not just for rust-prevention, the trusty WD-40 can be used to kill pesky weeds – especially great for weeds growing in cracks.
7. Learn to love them
As they say, one man’s weed is another man’s flower. So if you can’t beat them, maybe you can learn to love them. After all, many weeds are native plants that Mother Nature intended to thrive in the area, which may be why the weeds are so difficult to kill in the first place.
Related links:
A guide to growing plants from cuttings
8 great uses for Epsom salt in the garden
How to use colour in your garden to influence your mood