Recently I published
a post about using the vinegar and ultra dawn dish soap formula to
kill the weeds and grasses growing in between my garden path stepping
stones. I shared this
post
on Facebook and many of my gardening friends asked questions.
I will be answering
these questions here.
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Keep your garden weed free with vinegar. Photo of my lily and Iris garden |
Why use vinegar and dawn ultra dish soap and not roundup?
White vinegar is an
acid and the dawn ultra dish soap is what holds the acid on your
weed's leaves and stem. The acid kills the weed but does not kill the
earthworms. Roundup is a chemical that kills the weeds to the root
and every good garden insect that crosses its path. In addition, the roundup is not safe to use around pets.
How often do you
have to apply the vinegar weed killer?
The white vinegar
weed kill formula should be used on a hot sunny day. Spray the weed
by saturating it with vinegar. You will see the weed dying
back in a few hours, the leaves and stems will turn brown.
Now
provided your summers are dry then you will not need to reapply, you
may have to spot check the area for new weed-grown once a week and
treat any new growth with the vinegar. Now if it rains or the area that was treated with the vinegar formula gets wet from sprinklers, then the formula will be
weakened and the weeds will grow back quickly.
Can I use it in my
flowerbeds or around trees?
I would not
recommend using any weed kill in your flower garden areas for fear
that it might come in contact with a plant that you do not want to
kill. Know that I have used this weed killer on weeds growing close
to a mature Oak tree and had no problems but I would not use it in the
same area as a young tree.
This vinegar and
ultra dawn soap weed kill do work if used as directed and are not
weakened from rain or another water source.
Do I have to buy a
brand name for the distilled white vinegar?
No brand name is needed
in fact I would recommend that you buy Walmart.com Great Value which
is the store brand and is always less than other top brands. Buy
whatever is on sale as long as it is distilled white vinegar.
Does the vinegar
smell last long?
When the vinegar is
mixed with the dawn ultra dish soap the smell is weakened and is not as
pungent as straight vinegar. I noted that the smell was gone within a few hours.
Those are some of
the questions that I was asked, if you have any further questions
then please leave a comment and I will reply.
Here are some other
products that I have used for controlling weeds in flower beds'
learn more
here