If you’re looking for an easy and natural way to get rid of weeds in your garden, you might want to try using vinegar. Not only is it cheap and readily available, but it’s also an effective way to kill weeds without the use of harsh chemicals.
Why Vinegar Works
Vinegar contains acetic acid, which can dehydrate and kill weeds. When sprayed directly on the leaves of a weed, it can penetrate the plant’s protective layer and damage the cells, causing the plant to die. Of course, vinegar is not forever solution. Weeds can regrow, but in my experience it works well enough and the benefits are obvious.
How to Use Vinegar to Kill Weeds
Using vinegar to kill weeds is simple. To get started, I pulled out our garden sprayer and stocked up with 4 gallons of cheap store brand vinegar. If you don’t have a sprayer you can pick up a 1 gallon or 2 gallon fairly cheap on Amazon.com. Pour a gallon of vinegar in, pump and get to spraying, being sure to target the leaves.
You can also mix a little bit of dish soap in, if you like. A for conditions, I chose to do this on two dry, hot days. Repeat the process if necessary.
Tips for Using Vinegar to Kill Weeds
Be sure to spray only where you want to kill the grass, the vinegar will kill everything you spray. At the edges of your driveway be sure to spray in a straight line, unless you like zig-zagged edges. You can see in the photo above where I sprayed just a few hours prior to snapping this photo. The grass is already dying off and the edge is pretty clean.
- Be careful when using vinegar around desirable plants as it can also kill them
- Avoid spraying on a windy day as the wind can carry the vinegar to other plants
- Use a higher concentration of vinegar for tougher weeds (like pickling vinegar or cleaning vinegar)
That's awesome! And this comes at such a good time because we're trying to figure out what to do with some weeds right now!
Let me ask you this: obviously you can't spray the vinegar on areas where you don't want to kill everything living, do you think that if we sprayed something and waited a while, like maybe a week? Or even maybe after it rained a bit? That we could then plant plants in the areas we treated with vinegar and they'd grow ok? Or do you think it will kind of ruin the soil for growing anything for quite a while?
Thanks for this post. I have been searching for a natural way to kill weeds. I'll be sure to give this a shot.
Mel@MySunshine
Stephanie – From what I've read – the vinegar will also kill the good micro-organisms in the area if you saturate the ground like I did (I wanted these things dead and have no need to plant there).
If you are spot treating, or being more careful, you can spray the leaves of the plants (trying to avoid saturating the ground). After the plants have died I'd try waiting for a heavy rain or watering the area and adding some natural fertilizer to replenish nutrients in the area.
I also read that if you want to use this in your yard or gardens you can use a paint brush to 'paint' vinegar onto the leaves of weeds to kill them and avoid the good plants.
Hmm… good to know. Thanks for the info!
Perennial weeds can be really tough. I used a product called Burnout which is commercial grade vinegar. This stuff can eat through a cement floor so be careful where you store it.
This year I am going to try my steamer and see if that works. I will keep you posted!
A propane torch works really good too! And its fun!!!!!!!!
Try boiling water! Cheap, non toxic, and doesn’t change the ph.
Is it safe for a Uni-Stone driveway?