Kill it

Does anyone have any homemade recipes they use for killing vegetation such as grass, weeds or anything else that is in a place it shouldn't be? I have an area that is the future site of more SFG beds. It is next to my house and part of the area it covered by fist sized rocks and the other part was recently covered by large chunks of pine bark mulch. I have some weeds that get into this area and I would like to spray something to kill them. My son said I should use some weed killer from the store. I had to opportunity to ask him if he wanted to eat a vegetable that was grown in an area where a strong chemical was used to kill everything. After thinking about it he decided the store bought stuff may not be the best idea. I have found some recipes online using vinegar and salt but I don't really want to use the salt since I will be planting there in the future. Will the vinegar break down and fairly quickly and not cause any future harm to the area. I was thinking of using vinegar, Dr Bonners soap and dilute it with water. Am I wrong in thinking this will not cause any long lasting damage?

I believe you would be well served to do a bit of online research , looking particularly for scientific research based results. I think depending on what plant, an annual, perinneal, young or well established may require different treatments.

If there are only a few plants invading the space perhaps jut digging them up, roots and all, may be the safest, least expensive and most effective remedy.

http://aces.nmsu.edu/ces/yard/2004/041004.html

H TX, do you have a photo of the area? How close to the house is this area?

I'm thinking of termites and other wood destroying insects. I learned the hard way about boxes close to the foundation. It cost quite a bit for extermination a few years ago. My boxes around the foundation are all now elevated on pavers, bricks or 2" river rock.. Maybe low table top boxes, with vertical supports set on bricks, etc., would solve your weed invasion problem, and if close to the house, prevent setting up termite bed and breakfasts.

On the south side of my house I have a strip of ground almost 6 feet wide (running East to West) between my house and my driveway. My beds are a little more than one foot away from the house and the area between the beds and the house is covered in fist sized river rocks. I'm not too concerned about termites due to the river rock and I would be able to see any tunnels leading up to the weep holes in the brick. The SFG beds are 4X4 and they are set about 4 to 6 inches away from the driveway so I can't move them much further from the house.

Boiling water from the tea kettle works for me. 

Are you going to put weed barrier over the rocks & pine bark before placing and filling your boxes?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:Boiling water from the tea kettle works for me. 

Are you going to put weed barrier over the rocks & pine bark before placing and filling your boxes?

CC

it has worked for me too

Dig it up and remove weeds.
Cover with clear plastic and let sit in the hot sun for a couple weeks.

The rocks will stay and my future boxes will not be on top of the rocks. The pine bark mulch I will remove before I lay down the boxes. I will then use that same mulch to cover my beds after they are built. This seems like a fairly large area to use boiling water. The rocks have been there since before I moved into the house several years ago. The area was getting a bit unsightly so I just added the mulch. Hopefully the mulch will help keep weeds from coming up. This area had a lot of plants growing when I moved in. I have cleared it and occasionally something will try to grow up from years ago.

at2wooden wrote:Dig it up and remove weeds.
Cover with clear plastic and let sit in the hot sun for a couple weeks.

yes, solarization works well.

Not much solarizing going on in the PNW!   

put down news paper and wet it real good....it will smoother the grass and weeds and kill them.....after the wet news paper put down some cardboard over the top....it will take longer for the cardboard to decompose and it will attract tons of worms as they love to eat both news paper and cardboard   

we have done this several times and it has never failed for us

happy gardening
rose

Do you have a long extension cord?

May not matter if you don't have one, but if you had a steamer, that would kill the plants plenty dead. We got a floor model for about 70 bucks with a very long cord and the steam comes out at 212 degrees. It can be used almost anywhere you want things sterilized or to break up a stain. I also have a portable one, but it would be tougher to use because when you turn it horizontal, the water tends to tip out. But there are many kinds of steamers made, and all of them would work if you could get them over to your area.

I'm not putting the beds down this year. I keep wanting to but with the job, the wife and multiple kids finding the time is difficult. The area was looking a bit rough so I removed as much vegetation I could using an action hoe; possibly one of the coolest tools ever. The area not covered with the rocks I covered with the pine bark mulch. The existing one foot wide strip of rocks has weeds and I expect some weeds to come through the pine bark mulch. I have been wanting to do this for some time now and finally got around to doing it because we are having a birthday party for our daughter in two weeks. I was looking for something I could use to kill the weeds quickly. I know covering with plastics and paper will work but then I have to go back out and clean it up later. That is time I don't have. I will take a look at how much of the area actually has some vegetation growing and either use boiling water or a vinegar soap solution.

Mark,

I love the steamer idea! Are you referring to the type used to steam clothing, or that for cleaning and sterilizing floors?

if you put down the news paper and cardboard there would be no pulling out the grass or weeds, just lay the news paper and cardboard right on top of the grass and then to hide the paper and cardboard ...spread the pine bark mulch on top to cover up the paper and cardboard......soooo much easier then pulling/raking up weeds and grass......

happy gardening
rose

I use this guy-  he uses a high powered lite beam that smolders the weeds into smitherines....




For those larger than average weeds...this guy does not mess around. Emits a high frequency sound wave that will send those pesky weeds into oblivion!




sorry, its late and I should just go to bed ! 

course now instead of weed problems, ya got a varmit problem!

Yeah, I don't think I'd mess with them!

donnainzone10 wrote:Mark,

I love the steamer idea! Are you referring to the type used to steam clothing, or that for cleaning and sterilizing floors?

Either one. My handheld is for steaming clothes, but we have one for doing the floors too, in the shape of a regular stick vacuum. I've used it to clean our marble countertops too, and I'm going to try it on the bathtub next time I use it. I think it has a 29-foot cord.

For a long time I've wanted to get a high-end clothes steamer, the kind that go for over $200 bucks, because I've ruined a lot of clothes ironing. Those are more like an old-fashioned canister design, on wheels, with a hand-held long arm (and lots of different attachments) you can use to reach up to the tops of drapes, etc. It would be perfect for weed-killing, me thinks. And if the cord isn't long enough, you can get extremely long outdoor extension cords these days.

A steamer is kind of like the safer alternative to another weed-killer I thought pretty cool -- the kind that use a small flame at the end of a long wand. Just kill the weed and everything around it is fine. Of course, this would not be good when your garden is covered with wood chips! More for between sidewalk cracks and such.

Anyway, I like the idea of a zero-pollution instant-kill like a burst of 212-degree steam would give you. I don't know if the high-end clothes steamers pump out the steam at 212-degrees like our floor steamer does, but it's certainly hot enough to burn even on lower-end clothes steamers like my hand-held one.