How to kill weeds for next to nothing using a kitchen staple

April 14, 2022

WEEDS can easily overtake gardens if you don't get them under control as soon as they start popping up.

And if that's the case, you can actually use your favorite seasoning, salt, to get rid of them.

Master gardener at Gardening Know How, Susan Patterson, revealed that you don't need to get unnecessary chemicals involved in your plant care.

"Although killing weeds with salt may seem strange, it is effective when used cautiously," she wrote.

"Salt is inexpensive and readily available. It dehydrates plants and disrupts the internal water balance of plant cells."

However, she advised that salt is best used for smaller gardens that have full access to rainwater or that will be watered consistently.

If you use salt in bigger gardens and spread it without care, it can create soil conditions that are not suitable for growing plants for quite some time.

HOW MUCH SALT?

If you decide that salt is your best alternative to getting rid of weeds, you want to start with a fairly weak mixture of salt and water.

Ideally, your mixture should be 3:1 ratio of water to salt.

You will then increase the amount of salt until it begins to kill the target plant.

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HOW TO USE?

When using salt to kill weeds, you want to be careful that you don't spray it on the plants you want to keep.

Use a funnel to direct the saltwater to the weed and once you've done that, you'll want to water the rest of your plants with regular water.

"This will help to mitigate damage and will cause the salt to leach below the root zone of the plants," Patterson wrote.

As a last warning, you should never simply pour salt on top of your weeds as it can damage the surrounding vegetation and make your soil uninhabitable.

MORE HACKS

Previously, another gardening expert revealed that white vinegar can also get the job done with little to no effort.

In a social media video, cleaning aficionado Selina – who only goes by Selina's Tiktok – used a spray bottle to spritz the kitchen staple over the weeds that popped up between the cracks of her sidewalk.

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Surprisingly, just six hours later, the weeds had started to dry up – with some of the smaller ones being completely dead.

Despite white vinegar being super-efficient, you still want to be careful with it because it could also dry out your other plants, according to Bob Vila.