Gardening expert on how to keep your garden free of weeds
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Dealing with garden weeds can be a tedious task that can take hours depending on how many you have. Often, the best way to ensure your weeds are gone is by getting down on your hands and knees and pulling them out manually. However, this can be repetitive and can put strain on the body.
To avoid using chemicals and pulling them out manually, some people have recommended using household or more “natural” solutions.
A spokesperson for Gardening Know How explained that gardeners don’t need to get unnecessary chemicals involved in their plant care routine.
They said: “Although killing weeds with salt may seem strange, it is effective when used cautiously.
“Salt is inexpensive and readily available.
“Salt dehydrates plants and disrupts the internal water balance of plant cells.”
However, the expert advised that salt is best used for smaller gardens that have full access to rainwater or that will be watered consistently.
If salt is being used in bigger gardens and spread without care, it can create soil conditions that are not suitable for growing plants for quite some time.
Table salt or sodium chloride is a natural way to kill weeds without resorting to damaging chemicals.
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Gardeners need to make sure they use iodised or non-iodised table salt which is table salt, rock salt or sea salt.
Table salt can be purchased from Sainsbury’s or Asda for just 27p.
If gardeners decide that salt is the best alternative to getting rid of weeds, start with a fairly weak mixture of salt and water.
Ideally, the mixture should be a three to one ratio of water to salt.
Gardeners can then increase the amount of salt until it begins to kill the target plant.
When using salt to kill weeds, ensure that it is not being sprayed on the plants you want to keep.
A good tip is to use a funnel to direct the saltwater to the weed and after water the other plants with regular water.
The gardening expert said: “This will help to mitigate damage and will cause the salt to leach below the root zone of the plants.”
Gardeners can also add washing up liquid or white vinegar to the mix for an even more effective solution.
White vinegar’s high acidity is ideal for targeting weeds and removing them for good.
Depending on the hardiness of the weed results can appear as soon as an hour after spritzing with white vinegar.
However, just as with salt, make sure to avoid spraying the mixture on any plants gardeners wish to keep, as it can kill those too.
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