Homemade weed killer?

[patandchickens]

I thought about a salt water mix maybe add some vinger also?

No no, please don't use salt water. The salt will stay there and poison the soil, making it hard for future things to grow there or nearby.

Really, just dig the weeds up. It WORKS, and you can't get more organic than that. Feed them to chickens

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[sufficientforme]

The weeds where I live are incredibly hardy and I have had good results with 1 gallon of vinegar with 1/2 C salt with a squirt of dish soap. Shake until mixed (I dissolve the salt in a little water with the dish soap mixed in first) I got this recipe from a landscaper here. DO NOT use in areas used for plantings, I use this on my gravel driveway only.

 

[freemotion]

A hoe? A trowel? I try not to kill all the beneficial organisms in the soil.

 

[sufficientforme]

I have never met weeds like this before...I dig them up, root and all and they are back in a week. Roundup and the like do not even turn them brown here, just offering up what has worked for me.

 

[lorihadams]

i have a question about round up....my hubby wants to spray the beejeezus out of our new driveway....only problem is that it is directly adjacent to my goat pasture and my garden. I do NOT want roundup anywhere on my property. He says that it doesn't go into the soil or contaminate anything. PLEASE tell me that he is wrong.

 

[Aidenbaby]

He is wrong, Lori. It is just as bad as all the other herbicides out there. It used to claim it was biodegradable but that has since been disproven. It only degraded 2% after 1 month.

In addition, Roundup is the primary brand name that Monsanto sells and, personally, I won't be buying it ever again. I'd rather pull the weeds by hand than support a company that operates the way they do.

 

[patandchickens]

The top-billed "active ingredient" in Roundup is probably not such a terrible thing in the grand scheme of things.

HOWEVER, actual ROundup also contains a whole bunch of other ingredients, hidden in the "inert ingredients" category and proprietary so the company does not even have to DISCLOSE what they are, that are pretty well documented to make the stuff quite a lot more persistant and toxic.

I wouldn't do it, myself, if there was any good alternative.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[Javamama]

Good question! I have no answer though.
I have an invasive grass in my raised beds (I told DH not to use that soil to fill them! ) It spreads by the root system. I have pulled root that was 3 feet long and there is nothing that will kill it. So I just keep pulling. And pulling. And pulling. I don't have enough time to black it out between seasons. Such a huge mistake and I kick myself for it over and over. If the bindweed makes it into my beds, I give up!

 

[Aidenbaby]

Java, My ENTIRE back yard has been infested with bindweed. I didn't know what it was or how to deal with it when we first bought the house and... ROTOTILLED it. Huge mistake. I've been pulling ever since and using vinegar when it gets way out of control to at least find out where the bottoms of the plants are.

ETA: when we initially bought the house I thought the bindweed was wild morning glory. Never made that mistake again.

 

[lorihadams]

Thanks! I hate roundup...came home after shopping with my mom one weekend and my father was spraying the entire driveway with the stuff....nearly had a cow. I hate weeds in the driveway as much as the next person but not enough to poison my garden and the pasture where my kids play, goats will graze, chickens and ducks will free range and rabbits and meat chickens will live. Nope, I'd rather look at the weeds.