7 Natural And Cost-Effective Ways To Remove Weeds From Your Landscaped Garden

There are many ways in which a landscape design can transform your garden and provide all the many positives that flow from that. However, as much as we believe landscaping is the perfect way to turn a garden into something you and your family will benefit from, there are certain things that no landscape design can fix entirely, and one of those is weeds.

While specific landscape designs might have no natural elements to them and thus may eliminate any spots where weeds might grow, these are rare and tend to be landscape projects for commercial buildings. As for residential landscape designs, they almost always have natural elements such as grass, flower beds, and shrubbery to name but three.

This means that almost every Dalkeith homeowner who has landscaping has got to deal with weeds, and whilst nature may find a way to thwart your efforts, it does not mean that you should not try to minimise the weeds in your garden. Every bit of nourishment that a weed consumes is less for the plants you want to grow in your garden, so that is reason enough, plus weeds are ugly and diminish the appearance of your landscaping.

One approach to removing weeds would be to blast them with all manner of chemical weed killers. It might work temporarily, but you have to question if these chemicals cause more harm than good. They are certainly not conducive to the other plants, flowers, and grass in your garden staying healthy plus they are a danger to everyone in the vicinity including yourself, children, and pets.

We recommend that you use natural means to get rid of weeds. There is certainly no shortage of options, plus many of them cost very little. To highlight what possibilities there are, below we have outlined seven natural and cost-effective ways to rid your landscaping of weeds.

Natural Weedkiller #1 – Boiling Water: One of the simplest ways in which you can rid your landscaped garden of weeds is to pour boiling water over them. Simply fill your kettle, let the water boil, and then pour it directly on the centre of the weeds. For larger weeds, you may have to do this three or four times.

Natural Weedkiller #2 – Vinegar: As an alternative to boiling water, and every bit, if not, more effective is vinegar, which many of you will be aware is one of the most useful and versatile substances that exist. What it does to weeds is draw moisture from them thanks to the acetic acid which is a core natural component of vinegar. Just be careful not to spray it on adjacent plants.

Natural Weedkiller #3 – Newspaper: Old newspapers are a great and inexpensive way to prevent weeds from thriving in your landscaped garden. For this to work, you first moisten the newspaper. then place a layer of it over the weeds. This smothers them and prevents them from getting the sunlight they need to survive and grow.

Natural Weedkiller #4 – Mulch: For weeds to survive and grow they require warm, moist soil and sunlight. A great way to deprive them of both of these is to apply mulch to where they are growing. Mulch prevents them from pushing through and also stops them from germinating. A three-inch layer of mulch should be enough for most scenarios.

Natural Weedkiller #5 – Salt: We have already raided the kitchen for one condiment, vinegar, now it is time to use another, namely salt. The method is to simply spread some salt at the base of the weeds where the salt will soon quicken their demise. One note of caution is to not spread the salt too liberally as it may damage nearby plants.

Natural Weedkiller #6 – Ground Cover Plants: We have spoken about using natural methods, and arguably this is the most applicable given that we are going to use other plants to rid your garden of weeds. Here you are going to use ‘ground cover plants’ and their role will be to deprive the nearby weeds of moisture and sunlight. Examples include Northern Dropseed, Lady’s Mantle, Leadwort, and Catmint.

Natural Weedkiller #7 – By Hand: Finally, we have an opportunity to remove weeds in the simplest way possible, and get some exercise at the same time. All you do is put on some gardening gloves, and with the help of a small gardening claw or trowel, you pull the weed from the ground, ensuring you pull the roots out too.