Do you have a dream of getting bumper harvest from your yard, but your garden is full of unwanted weeds, grass, and unwanted vegetation? Or are you on the verge of losing hope of maintaining your flower beds which are being taken over by weeds and grass? Worry no more; we have many DIY (Do It Yourself) tips that will promise you an end of the weed era or glaring flower beds.
Weed science as a discipline has undergone a tremendous change since the year 1970. Federal laws affecting pesticides have been modified, and Integrated methods of controlling weeds with either chemical and non-chemical methods have received lots of attention (Appleby).
There are many methods to kill weeds and grass, but not all of them are desired. Practical ways are the ones that promise permanent destruction of weeds – which might not be applicable at the moment. These effective methods should be non-toxic to humans and pets. These methods can either be mechanical, biological methods, chemical, or a combination of these.
Before studying the methods of doing away with weeds, let us check on some of the weeds you will commonly find at homes. A weed is any undesirable vegetation that mainly grows alongside the desired vegetation depriving the later natural resources like water, nutrients, and sunlight. You can have crabgrass, giant foxtail as your quick examples.
Noxious weeds are plants classified by authorities to be injurious to public health, agriculture, or wildlife property. An excellent example of this is Field Bindweed.
Invasive weeds are types of plants that spread widely in natural ecosystems outside their plants’ native range. When in gardens or flower beds where there is no native competition, these invaders will overrun the native plants and take over the ecosystem.
No matter how destructive the weed is, tons of remedies will keep them at a standstill or get destroyed. For this reason, we are going to go through some of the best ways to eliminate the noxious weed and invasive weed at your home with a homemade weed killer that you can obtain at a low cost.
Application of these methods will depend on the following factors;
Stage of growth
Type of weed
Depending on these factors, implementing the damage process on particular weeds will differ. The way of eradication could either be: cutting, burial, or uprooting. The three methods of destruction could be:
Lethal damage – it is effective in the case of plantlets.
Exhaustion of reserves – effective where deep or surface organs are targeted.
Withering – this is where sub-surfaces are targeted.
To be precise, mechanical destruction of weeds involves cutting the foliage, burying foliar parts, or cutting up the surface organs of propagation. Withering can be achieved by cutting the weed roots, exposing the roots to the air, or shaking out rootlets.
Weeds and grass depend on water, sunlight, and air to survive. Holding any of these factors can make the weeds die. With this knowledge, it is easy to devise ways to deprive unwanted grass and weeds of their essential requirements. If, for instance, you want to clear a weed and grass in a specific area of your yard or a flower garden, you can make use of your morning newspapers. You can keep the newspaper wet then use it to cover the region you want to kill the weeds or grass. Sunlight and air will not penetrate, and there will be less oxygen; and therefore, the weeds will die because they cannot manufacture food.
In this section, we will see methods you can employ to kill weeds naturally using chemical resources from the kitchen. Is it not amazing that the best weed killer in the world is found in the kitchen? It should be.
There is a wide variety of horticultural vinegar, but not all are very good for killing weeds. White vinegar has proven to be the most effective weed control. This is because:
How to prepare the recipe for horticultural vinegar
Rubbing alcohol is a potent weed killer because it works by drawing water away from weed foliage. As foliage dries out, the weed becomes much weakened, and they finally die.
How to prepare
Note that: you should prevent drops of this content from falling to other plants you want to keep.
Bleach is an excellent stain remover, but as a weed killer it also works so well. It works by decolorizing the green matter in the plant(chlorophyll), making it unable to manufacture food, and therefore it dies (Kvesitadze).
The beauty of using bleach as a weed killer is that the chemicals will evaporate within two days, and therefore the garden or flower bed will be ready for planting. Planting is done as soon as the chemicals dissociate.
How to prepare a bleach solution
Who would have ever thought that baking soda would be one of the best ways to make a homemade weed killer ?
How to make baking soda solution
This method is the best way to eliminate unwanted grass in a garden and practice extensive weed control. It can be used in areas with other plants, but it is crucial to ensure that the foliage and base of plants are covered.
Prepare a solution of table salt with warm water. Giving weeds a scaling hot bath can interfere with their structure and processes, and therefore the plant can die.
When table salt solution is applied, the weed is dehydrated, and therefore, it will wilt and die.
Aside from DIY tips, there are also other ways to smoothen the weed control process. It includes the following:
Cost – the initial cost for making a homemade weed killer is small and almost negligible because everything is practically available. Ingredients such as table salt, white vinegar are relatively cheap on pricing. On the other hand, herbicides are rather expensive to purchase.
Environment – using a homemade weed killer means you care about your soil and your environment in general. Too many herbicides can alter the quality of your soil.
References
Kvesitadze, G., Khatisashvili, G., Sadunishvili, T., & Ramsden, J. J. (2006). Biochemical mechanisms of detoxification in higher plants: basis of phytoremediation. Springer Science & Business Media.
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