Effective Organic Weed Control Methods – How to Kill the Weeds in an Environmentally Friendly Way

SUMMARY

Everyone hates it when weeds invade their healthy garden. Weeds can take precious nutrients away from your plant, compete with plants for water, and deprive garden plants of sunlight by casting shade on them. Luckily, you can get rid of weeds without using strong chemicals that can damage your yard’s biodiversity. In this article, we will provide sound advice when it comes to effectively getting rid of weeds through organic methods.

Using Mulching as Weed Control

Mulching is a great way to control weeds in your garden and prevent them from growing in the first place. Mulching involves applying a layer of organic material on a soil surface. This suppresses weed growth while also providing additional nutrients to your soil and plants. Some types of mulch can include biodegradable paper mulch, leftover shredded leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, or straw. These kinds of mulch will prevent weeds from germinating, cool the soil during hot weather, and put more nutrients back into the soil. First, you should remove any existing weeds before laying down mulch. Then, put a layer of mulch that is 2-3 inches thick on top of your soil layer. After that, you can expect to foster a thriving ecosystem that supports plant growth and minimizes competition from weeds. Another added benefit of mulch is that, during the winter, it helps insulate plants from the cold.

Weed Pulling

Sometimes the old tried and true method can be the best if combined with some effective tips and tricks. When it comes to weed pulling, timing is key. The best time to pull weeds is after it rains. Rain can cause the soil to moisten and loosen up. With the soil nice and moist, this makes it easier to pull weeds out. When you pull out weeds, grab the weeds by the base of the plant. This prevents you from just ripping off just a handful of its leaves. Before pulling weeds, you should use protective gloves since some weeds have thorns, thistles, or nettles. You can also use tools like hand trowels, weeding forks, or hoes to dislodge bigger, more difficult weeds. After that, you can apply mulch to prevent any new weed growth from happening.

Homemade Weed Killers

If you need to use weedkiller, but don’t want commercial herbicides that have tons of harmful chemicals, you can make your own! With simple household ingredients, you can create your own weedkiller through various methods. One weedkiller recipe requires a gallon of vinegar, 1 cup of salt, and one tablespoon of dish soap. You just have to combine the ingredients together, then spray it onto the leaves of weeds. This will dry the plant tissues out and cause the weed to die. Another mixture is lemon juice and vinegar. Just mix all of it together and spray it onto the weed. The citric acid and vinegar will kill the weed.

A few other methods will do the trick as well. For example, simply pouring boiling water onto leaves will destroy the plant’s protective outer layer, killing it. One gallon of white vinegar, combined with 2 cups of Epsom salt and ¼ cup of dish soap, will eradicate tough weeds like purslane. One last organic weed control recipe is to sprinkle corn gluten meal in areas where you want to prevent weeds from germinating, serving as an effective pre-emergent herbicide. As you can see, there are many homemade solutions that you can use as an eco-friendly weed killer without the use of harsh chemicals.