One of the most important things to watch out for once you have fully established the garden in your property (i.e. the right plants have been planted in the right places and a small rainwater tank has been set up to support them) is weed growth. Even in well-designed gardens, weeds are bound to grow. This is because weeds thrive in only the simplest conditions—soil and sunlight.
To eliminate weeds, you have so many chemical options you can go for. However, there are a number of chemical options that can prove to be harmful to animals and maybe even human life. Some are known irritants, while others are alleged to have long-term effects, such as eventual cancer development.
Fortunately, you can always pull weeds by hand, especially in the event of a small outbreak. But in case of a worse outbreak, you are better off using a number of ingredients, all of which can be found among your supplies.
One reliable combination is salt, vinegar, and liquid dish soap. This combination has every ingredient that’s needed to kill weeds quickly. The acetic acid of vinegar as well as the salt are decent when it comes to drawing moisture from the weeds. Meanwhile, dish soap serves as surfactant, an agent which reduces surface tension, which can cause your weed-killing cocktail to bead on leaves instead of getting absorbed by the plants themselves.
When applied on a warm and sunny day, you can expect to see the result of applying this homemade spray in just a few hours. In that time period, you can see the weeds become brown and wither.
Unfortunately, in comparison to certain chemical solutions, the formula mentioned above isn’t designed to work all the way down to the roots. For this reason, multiple treatments probably will be needed to keep the weeds away. It’s also worth noting that the lack of sunshine and heat might not cause the weeds to wither right away, and the acid percentage in many household vinegars might not be enough to kill hardier weeds.
The thing that makes the above solution a decent one against weeds, however, is the fact that it’s inexpensive, and often is effective against weeds which might appear at random along fences, walkways, and foundations of houses. To apply the solution, just spray on weeds, making sure to avoid spraying the soil or any plants nearby—the solution might end up killing them too if you’re not careful.
So what do you do against hardier weeds? One of the most sensible solutions that does not involve the use of chemicals is to take time to uproot them by hand, preferably on a weekend. Another sensible solution is the use of organic herbicides made from citrus acid and natural fatty acids.
Once you have removed or killed weeds, the next thing to do is to prevent them from growing in the first place by spreading corn gluten on soil.
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