How to Kill Weeds Using Salt
If you keep a garden, you probably spend more time than you would like thinking about and dealing with weeds. Weeds can be a serious problem in any garden, and they can be a lot of work to remove one at a time. You can spray to prevent weeds, or kill existing ones, but do you really want to use harsh chemicals --and if you have a vegetable garden-- use harsh chemicals on food that you plan to eat? It may seem as if there is no easy, effective, natural way to kill weeds. However, it is possible to kill weeds using simple, ordinary table salt. Salt is an excellent weed killer because it will kill weeds, but will dilute away to harmless levels naturally with water.
What follows should help anyone attempting to wipe out weeds for good without using too much effort, breaking the bank, or using harmful chemicals.
Step 1 - Prepare
First, you will need to put your weed killing mixture together. Gather your ingredients, then mix together:
8 cups water
1 tbsp. dish soap
1 cup salt
Stir the mixture until it dissolves, and then pour the whole thing into your spray bottle.
Next, make a spray guard. This ensures that your spray will hit its mark, and not accidentally hit any plants you want to be healthy. Cut the bottom off of the milk jug using your scissors. Next, cut a small hole in the top--big enough to easily fit the nozzle of your spray bottle, but not too much bigger.
Step 2 - Spray
Once you find a weed, place your spray guard over it, making sure not to cover anything that isn't a weed. Once everything is in place, give the weed a few sprays. The mixture will then go to work--the salt killing the weed, and the dish soap helping the mixture stay in one place.
Using this method is better for isolated weeds than it is for weeds that are mixed in with other small plants, such as grass, as it will kill all plants that it encounters indiscriminately (until it is washed away naturally by rain or watering, of course).
Step 3 - Maintain
Maintaining your garden with this method is a lot easier than killing all of the weeds that have built up for the first time. Don't put it off, as weeds become harder to kill the longer you allow them to grow. Remember, young weeds are weaker than fully grown ones. Also, more importantly, killing weeds early prevents them from going to seed, saving you the trouble of killing the next generation of weeds. However, if you spray any weeds you find as soon as they show themselves, you will be able to keep your garden completely weed-free with a minimum amount of effort. (For more information on weeding, visit our Weed Control page.)
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