Just wondering what others use for weed kill? We've got an assortment of weeds at our place.. we dig them out roots and all and they keep coming back. I'd be keen to use a spray on to save the back.. environmentally and pet friendly would be nice too
Something with glycophosphate (I think this is its name) with a $10 spray bottle from that place. It doesn't work on vines - I made the mistake of pulling down years of vines, with 1000s of seed pods showering my rear yard. I moved out rather than got on top of the subsequent seedling problem.
When I was an apprentice chef, one of the lessons was on limiting bacterial growth. Bacteria grow when they have temperature, moisture and food, so the idea is to limit one of these externalities to prevent bacterial growth (food going off). Its why we refrigerate food, or have it in airtight containers, or preserve it in sugar or salt (limiting moisture). Taking the analogy to weeds, you need to limit either sunlight, 'food' or moisture. Weeds are pretty hardy, they don't need a lot of moisture etc, but you can limit sunlight. Have you tried mulching? If the weeds do manage to grow through the mulch, disturbing them usually does the trick, its easier weeding a mulched bed than a bare one. You can also 'overfeed' some weeds, as they have evolved to grow with minimum nutrients, an oversupply can burn them. Google 'weed sand', I think its ammonium nitrate and sand. Hot water can kill weeks, as can flame throwers, seawater and water with vinegar are all safe methods to kill weeds. The issue is the seedbank is still there and you have to keep re applying, as you would with a chemical solution.
YES - totally nuke it! Alternatively, boiling water poured on weeds kills 'em too - and pretty enviro-friendly. Also effective if you never want anything to grow there again is to "salt the earth" - a bag of pool salt is $7 and goes a long way
It's actually Glyphosate. Takes about 2 weeks then you should start to see yellowing of the leaves. Steam is the most environmentally freindly, not sure about salt as you will wreck the ground for future plantings and is akin to really nuking it.
Round up is quick to apply but painfully slow to work. Steam is slow to apply but works within 24-48 hours! http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-05/steaming-weeds-dead/4937908
vinegar and salt mix with a tea spoon of dishwashing liquid/oil is what i use. any plant it touches dies so use sparingly. makes the area weed free for 3-4 months. I would not use in vegie bed though. hand picking/mulch is the way to go there.
