Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Pickled


Last weekend I decided it was time to get serious about the yard work. I had put it off for a couple of weeks only because I knew it wasn't going to be a one-and-done deal and it's a little daunting to know that once you start, you're pretty much committed for five months of shitty one-day weekends. Besides the usual mowing, edging, weed whacking and hedge trimming one of the first things I had to tackle was the enormous amount of weeds that had sprouted up in our flower gardens. So the question became, do I spend a couple of days pulling them (only to have them resurface in a week or two) or do I go all Saddam Hussein on them? My relative lack of patience ruled out option one and the tree hugger in me made option two out of the question so I went to the Internet in search of an alternative and the solution surprised me.

Vinegar.

That's right, plain old vinegar.

The above picture was taken just one day after making one big dandelion and clover salad in my backyard.

And while I know some of you might not be interested in the whole green aspect of this approach, think about this.

One bottle of vinegar: $.99

One bottle of Round Up: $15.00

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

GOT VINEGAR??????????

Worth the try---CHEAP!

Anonymous said...

That is a great solution. Did you dilute it with water?

Anonymous said...

Good to know!

Unknown said...

I didn't dilute it, just poured it into a spray bottle and started shooting.

If that doesn't work (although it worked great for me) there were several other natural solutions I came across online, utilizing everything from lemon juice to boiling water and every possible combination. Just be warned, if you go the boiling water route, you won't be able to replant anything for quite a while.

Oh, and one other tip I learned online, you can pour table salt into the cracks in your driveway or sidewalk to take care of those weeds—although I'm not sure how economic that would be and the vinegar worked great for me in that instance as well.