Sunday, February 7, 2010

Natural Weed Killer


There are patches of clover near our home that attract honeybees. I wouldn't mind either the clover or the bees, except that each of my children has been stung mulitple times. So I'm attacking the clover. Last summer whenever I was outside I would work on manually pulling the clover out of the lawn. I decided to try a different approach this year: vinegar. This picture shows my test patch about 24 hour after application--you can see the clover has turned white. Vinegar also kills grass, so you don't want to use it indiscriminately; waiting a week after application and then reseeding the areas with grass would probably work (and help the clover from coming back). I know there are broad-leaf herbicides that work well, but I prefer to avoid chemicals wherever I can. Regular kitchen vinegar I know won't hurt my kids. Just put some in a spray bottle, spray the weed you want to get rid of (it doesn't take a lot), and voila! Good for patios etc., but unless you want acidic soil it might not be a good idea for the garden!
Posted by Picasa

3 comments:

maryanne said...

Wow, that works really well. I'll have to keep it in mind for our lawn, once we can see it again (currently buried under snow)...

B. Perky said...

Thanks! I'm going to try it on the cracks in the walk. Keeping the clover for now. Not allergic to bees--yet.

Romany said...

Thta's interesting! We encourage clover in lawns here, but then it never flowers because we keep our lawns very short. I don't know that that is!