You’ve seen the commercials for RoundUp, seen it on the shelves of every outdoor store, but do you know how harmful this weed killer is? For a start, the main ingredient in this common weedkiller is a carcinogen; the same family of harmful, cancer-causing chemicals that can also be found in cigarettes and rat poison. If you have pets, or children, just imagine them going outside after you have sprayed your lawn with RoundUp and them picking up something to eat.
Furthermore, because of the over use of RoundUp, it is actually getting into the air and rain of mother earth, causing very deadly effects on the lives of people, animals, and plants.
The thing is, even if you switched to a different weed killer, they might still be made of the same harmful chemicals, meaning you have just replaced one problem with the same problem.
It is very easy, however, to make items at home that work just as well as store brought weed killers. You probably have all the ingredients that you need in your cupboards as well, meaning that you don’t have to pay a single cent while helping to protect your family and the earth.
The Dish Soap Recipe
One way to naturally remove the weeds on your lawn without using RoundUp is to simply take a mixture of four cups vinegar, two table spoons of dish soap, and a pinch or two of salt. What happens is this. The soap acts as a kind of glue, allowing all the other ingredients to stick to the weeds. Then, the salt drains all of the liquid out of the weeds cells, while the vinegar starts attacking, filling up the areas that once contained water and preventing the weeds from turning sunlight into food.
You don’t want to add too much salt to this mixture, as you don’t want your grass or other plants to be affected by this natural remedy. You will also want to try and spray it to only the places that you have weeds.
Once you have your mixture, just wait for a sunny day, and spray down the lawn with it. You might want to put it into a watering can to make everything easier.
You can also kill two birds with one stone with this. if you have any ant piles in your lawn, you can pour this mixture on them to help remove these pests from your lawn and home.
Rock Salt
Even when it’s winter, you might want to keep your drive way and patio free of weeds, firstly to make the summer easier and secondly because who really wants weeds at any time?
You can even stockpile the rock salt during the winter months to carry on removing weeds from your concreted areas all throughout the summer months.
If you are sure you will never want any plants to grow on your patio areas, you can also add a large amount of normal table salt to the soil. This will completely dry up the dirt and prevent anything from growing there.
Hand Grease
Of course, one of the most natural ways of getting rid of weeds is to apply a lot of effort with a hand trowel. You can make this task so much easier with a bit of water. Although it may seem odd to be providing the weeds with even more drink, this will actually be a short sigh of relief for them as all you are really doing is loosening the soil to make it easier to rip them out.
If you are a parent, however, you can also use having a weed free lawn as a great way of teaching your children to take care of their finances. Offer them a bit of allowance for cleaning out the lawn, and allow them to spend it on whatever they want. As well as helping you have a naturally weed free lawn, you can install useful life lessons onto them. And who knows, maybe in time they will become keen gardeners themselves. It also helps them to get away from their game consoles and computers and enjoy the fresh air.
Kill The Weeds With Sunlight
Weeds are just another example of a plant. Sure, a plant that can ruin the look of your lawn, but at the end of the day they are still just plants. One thing that all plants need is sunlight. You can use this against them.
Get yourself some cardboard, and some rocks, and simply apply the cardboard to the weeds. Keep this cardboard on the weeds for a week, and then simply remove. The weeds will now be dead and you can simply pick them out of the grass.
The great thing about this is that it removes the need to make sure that you have removed every last trace of the weed, as even if you miss any of the roots, the weed is now dead and won’t be growing back any time soon.
Sprinkle Baking Soda on the Area
Baking soda is a chemical-free way of removing weeds which is a lot healthier, and cheaper, than RoundUp.
All you have to do is take some baking soda, and sprinkle it around where the weeds are growing on your lawn. Then, simply apply a bit of water to make sure that the baking soda spreads out enough to put an end to your weed problem.
For extra effectiveness, you can also try making sure that you get some of the baking soda into the soil. This will ensure that the weed is completely and utterly killed.
Boiling Water
Another great trick is to simply use boiling hot water on the weeds. Of course, make sure that your feet aren’t in the way!
This will cause the weeds to shrivel, allowing you to easily remove them with a lawnmower or by hand the next day.
However, this method is no where near as effective as using any of the other tricks in this article. If you are serious about using boiling water as an alternative to RoundUp, you will need to make sure that you repeat the treatment on your lawn every few days. this is because, for a while, the weed will simply be able to spout once more from the undamaged roots.
However, one advantage of this method is if you are very diligent about doing it, you can make sure that you do not damage any other part of your lawn.
Prevent them from growing
One of the best methods of control is also one of the most fun. You can awaken your inner landscape designer and create flower beds to keep weeds away from all of the beauty spots of your lawn.
With a few blocks of wood, or bricks, you can wall off all of your plants from the ground. Add some gravel around the pots, and you can prevent weed seeds from finding their way into the soil of your plants.
You will have to ensure that there are no gaps in any barriers you use. To be extra sure, you can add salt to any gaps you do spot, being very careful to not include salt in the soil of your plants’ bedding.
With these easy tips, it is very easy to get rid of weeds without resorting to the harmful chemicals promoted by big companies. Not only can you be sure that your lawn is kept clean in the most natural way possible, but by following the above tips, you can also make sure that the earth remains clean from RoundUp and other harmful weed killers.
