Natural Weed Killer

It wasn’t until I had grandkids that “organic” and “natural”  even became a thing to me.  I actually felt bad enough for not thinking of it while my own son was young, that I apologized to him.

When the thought of having a grandchild actually became a reality, I couldn’t imagine bringing her around anything that was so full of chemicals.  The more I read the labels the more I didn’t want any of that stuff around my grandkids or us, for that matter.  I decided then and there, that there had to be a better way or at least a more chemical-free way.

We live in the country and have a very large driveway made of rock.  My husband wanted to keep it as weed free as possible since we can’t mow it.  When the kids come out and play on that driveway, so I wouldn’t let him spray any of that poison on it.  I had to come up with a better solution.

I searched the internet and found several different recipes and ideas, some worked okay and some not at all.  The more I read the more I started noticing common ingredients in a lot of them and decided I could  make my own.  When I finally put it together, it WORKED!!!  I was so happy.  Sadly it only kills the top of the plant, the part that the solution touches.  I can live with that.

            It actually impressed both of us.  This recipe is too easy not to try.  So I had to share.

Natural Weed Killer:

1. Add 1 cup of salt to a quart jar.
2. Fill the jar with water and let it sit for a week to dissolve as much of the salt as you can.
3. Put 1 gallon white vinegar in a 2 gallon sprayer
4. Add the quart of salt solution.  Rinse and get as much of the salt as you can out of the quart jar.  
5. Continue to let it sit for a short while longer to melt as much more of the salt as you can.  You want to melt as you can, so it won’t clog your sprayer.  (Don’t ask me how I know that.)
6.   Add a few tablespoons of dish soap to the sprayer (or actually I use the soap I make dish soap with)
7. Shake it up completely (or as best you can in a 2 gallon sprayer container).
8. Soak the plants with a sprayer on a day that you have lots of sun.  I’m not positive, but I think the sun helps kill the plant.  I’ll have to test that sometime.

          Within hours you will begin to notice weeds turning brown.  With large clumps of grass it may only kill the outside of the clump.  You may have to spray those more than once, but apparently, from what my husband tells me about the old “store bought” weed spray, it still worked faster and better.

Saturday 1 pm

Sunday 8am

This plant continued to die off until it became dust and blew away!!!  YAY!!!

           If you have some weeds to get rid of, you might give this a try.  If you do, let me know how it works for you.  We were highly impressed with how fast the weeds died.  

           Do you have a recipe that you use that works great?  If so, please put it in the comments.  The more ideas the better, in my humble opinion.