This must be the time of year for afternoon showers here on the west coast of Florida. With the rain comes lots of growth which is just great for the few things I’ve planted. However, those pesky little weeds popping up in between the pavers on my driveway and sidewalks are growing like crazy as well.
S.O.S. ~ Natural weed killer needed! We are extra careful about using any type of chemical that could end up in the water. I have books with natural recipes for this but they are still packed in the garage. I thought I’d check out Pinterest and see if I could find a recipe for a green weed killer. There were loads of recipes using vinegar, salt and dish soap. I mixed up a batch, sprayed it on a test area and by that afternoon those pesky little weeds were brown and dying! I couldn’t find the original pin or website I saw this on..arrgh. There were lots of pins with the same 3 ingredients and they only varied slightly. Below is from memory.
Recipe
1 Gallon white vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1/8 cup liquid dish soap
Mix and saturate the weeds. Using it in the morning on a hot sunny day seems to speed the process along.
This is great stuff, super easy, super easy on the budget and natural. Love it 🙂
You’ll see my post linked up here..
Alana says
Do you have anything for killing raspberry? I don’t want to use any chemicals and we have A LOT so by hand isn’t really an option. Thanks
Wendi says
I’m not familiar with raspberry, it may work just fine. We make large batches of 2 gallons t a time for our place. That may be a question for your local plant store Another place for good information is Hometalk.com. That is a fantastic forum for questions like yours! Best of luck on your search.
Ellen says
It didn’t work on my weeds
Wendi says
Wow, I’m surprised it didn’t work for you. It always works for us. Here are a few details that we always make sure of when we spray for the weeds. this. The weeds are dry, thouroughly wet them down with a sprayer, we do this on a sunny day, we always spray in the morning. If that doesn’t work for you, you may have a very tough weed.
Elaine says
Hi, Wendi,
I keep seeing this recipe – doesn’t the salt harm the soil’s growing potential? I am guessing it must be a small enough amount that it doesn’t. Thanks!
Wendi says
It is a small amount of salt, so I assume it doesn’t cause a problem. I would check with gardeners who use this recipe or weed control in gardens just to be sure it’s ok. Thanks for your visit & taking the time to ask a question 🙂 Have a wonderful day.
Gina says
If you use salt, you ARE endangering killing any plants/flowers you already have planted. I am not sure the permanent effect, but I do know that.
You should wait to plant until at least 1-2 days after pouring/spraying the vinegar-soap (sans salt) solution, per a Garden Dept associate at Home Depot.
Wendi says
Thanks for sharing Gina. It’s good to remind people not to use the solution near or on anything the want to keep. We don’t use the solution in a garden or near any plants we want to keep. Our weeds are in between pavers in the driveway and really hard to get rid of. The salt is fine and leaves no lasting effects. Thanks for your visit.