common household

Using a Common Household Product as a Weed Killer

Dan This Land of Ours

How to use a common household product as a weed killer.  That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.

common household

Vinegar is a jack-of-all-trades around the home. It’s an effective window cleaner, disinfectant, stain remover, and it has the ability to help control weeds, too. However, you wouldn’t want to use this acidic liquid in all areas of your landscape because it could damage any plant it touches.

Typical white vinegar in the store is 5% vinegar and 95% water. This type of vinegar works best on small, annual weeds that are less than two weeks old, and it will often require several applications to do the job. You can up its efficacy by adding a cup of table salt and a tablespoon of liquid dish soap to a gallon of white vinegar. Usually, this mixture only kills the tops of the target weeds, leaving the roots that can regrow new shoots.

The safest places to use vinegar on weeds is in between concrete seams in sidewalks, mulch or gravel paths, and driveways. It’s usually easy to spray the vinegar in these areas without getting it on other plants.

As with any weed killer, select a day that is warm and sunny to apply it.

Listen to Cathy Isom’s This Land of Ours program here.

Using a Common Household Product as a Weed Killer