by Texas Homesteader ~
Something with a single long taproot seeded itself prolifically in my front ‘flower bed’ last year. Now that spring is just around the corner, they all sprouted with a vengeance! So that it doesn’t become a bigger problem I started digging out the plants that I could reach. But I was dismayed to see how thickly they were sprouting in my rock feature at the downspout. That digging stick wasn’t as effective in the rocks as it was in the soil. And ugh, my aching back. What a pain!
Wonder if I can use something I’ve already got? I have a spray bottle in my kitchen filled with diluted vinegar for cleaning. I didn’t really measure it when I made it up, but it’s only about 1/4 cup vinegar and the rest of the spray bottle was filled with water. I use this spray bottle when I’m spot-cleaning a spill on the kitchen floor or cleaning the stove top.
Calm Winds And Sunshine To The Rescue!
So, I took advantage of a day with low wind & sunshine and fetched my vinegar spray from the kitchen cabinet. I was sure to spray the leaf surfaces of all the plants I wanted dead, & careful not to allow over-spray on any desirable plants. Then I sat back & let the sunshine and vinegar do all the hard work.
The plants are completely dead now of course, but this is a pretty dramatic before/after difference in just a few hours!
When I’m getting serious with weed spraying I use my heavy-duty non-toxic Weed Killer Recipe. But for these small weeds I didn’t even have to mix anything up – just fetch the spray bottle & get to spraying the weeds. Gotta love a cheap, fast, non-poison way to kill hard-to-dig weeds!
~TxH~
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Thanks for sharing your post on the Homestead Blog Hop, I am constantly encouraging folks to use non toxic methods to get rid of weeds! As one of the co-hosts I will be sharing your post on the Hop this Thursday!
-Nancy ( Nancy On The Home Front )
It’s always in the bag for us to try the most gentle solution first, moving up the ladder only if that doesn’t suffice. More times than not the gentlest solution works. ~TMH~
I didn’t know that vinegar would do this…although I guess it makes sense! Thanks for sharing on the Waste Less Wednesday Blog Hop!
Love the hop Katy, thanks for hosting! ~TMH~
Gosh! I wonder if it will work on horehound! We are so badly infested with that stuff! It. Just. WON’T. Go. AWAY. I’ll be giving this a try! Thanks!
It works best with broadleaf weeds on a sunshiny day, Heidi. But it’s non-discriminatory so be sure there’s no wind to drift the spray onto any desirable plants. ~TMH~
I use vinegar too; I don’t like to use poisons, especially near my gardens. The driveway runs right up to in front of my house; the gravel there has landscape fabric under it to keep weeds from growing. But that only means weeds from underneath; as dust & dirt blows around we get shallow rooted things taking hold & chickpea especially can spread into a large area quickly.
Oh yeah, you’re certainly right there! It doesn’t take long for things to spread and go from a small problem to a pain in the patootie problem! LOL ~TMH~
I had read that vinegar works, but it wasn’t from someone I trusted. Thank you!
Although it’s too bad you don’t just add them to your salad- they’re a bitter green that’s good for you
Oh yeah, vinegar is the only thing we use around the Taylor Household Laurinda. I’d rather tread as gently as possible on our little piece of paradise. ~TMH~