May 15, 2013

Why do we make things so complicated? Sometimes simple solutions are the best and in this case, cheap and environmentally friendly. Check the end of the post for other ways to use white vinegar in the home and garden.

So here’s my experience with some common weeds in my yard.

A newer weed to my yard. I saturated it with white vinegar.

Same weed about 24 hours later.

This is a particularly troublesome weed. It has a very long tap root, sometimes eight to ten inches long. Between the cobblestones here, if I tried to pull it, most of the root would stay behind.

Same weed a day later. Looks like a little life left in it so I sprayed it again. This weed also grows where the curbstone meets the street surface, an impossible place to weed.

Another common weed soon to develop seeds and perpetuate itself in my garden.

Not this time. Easy work for the vinegar because of the thin leaves.

White vinegar works well for solo or sidewalk weeds. As expected if you try to kill weeds in grass or embedded in a groundcover, the grass or groundcover will die. I’m experimenting on various weeds such as oxalis which produce bulbs in the soil and clover-like weeds with running roots.

Some gardeners put the undiluted white vinegar in a pump sprayer for easier and possibly more efficient dispersal. Just remember to rinse the sprayer well since it may corrode metal parts.

Vinegar is also my best friend (diluted about 1:10 with water) in the kitchen. It cleans my counters beautifully and disinfects my stainless steel sink and cutting boards. And did I mention I use it to clean my bathroom sinks? 

A Google search will produce many websites touting the uses for white vinegar. Here’s one to start with: 1001 Uses for White Distilled Vinegar. Photo credit: Apartment Therapy