How To Make An Effective Homemade Weed Killer

No matter how carefully you plan your garden or trim your lawn, you're bound to have the occasional weed rear its ugly head. If you don't take care of the problem quickly, weeds can spread and take over. Commercially-produced weed killers contain so many dangerous chemicals (some are known to cause cancer), and those with children certainly don't want their lawn or garden covered in something that dangerous.

Luckily, you can mix up a safe and effective homemade weed killer with 3 easy-to-find ingredients: salt, vinegar and dish soap.

Vinegar will kill anything it is sprayed on: weeds, vegetable plants, flowers.... just like a commercial herbicide; however, it won't make you sick and is eco-friendly. Although vinegar is powerful when it comes to killing off weeds, it isn't a permanent solution. This is where the salt comes in. Adding salt to this mixture will make sure that weeds never return. Dish soap simply helps the mixture cling to the weeds better.

What you need:
1 gallon of white vinegar
1 cup of table salt
1 tablespoon dish soap of any kind
a plastic bucket
a long handled spoon
a plastic spray bottle or pressure sprayer

How to make it:
1. Pour the vinegar into the plastic bucket.
2. Add in the salt, and stir until it is completely dissolved.
3. Add the dish soap and stir.
4. Fill the spray bottle with the mixture.
5. Store leftover liquid in a glass or plastic container, away from direct light.

How to use it:
On a dry, sunny day, thoroughly spray the weeds you wish to remove with the solution. Soak them completely. After a few days, they will dry up and die.

NOTE: Anything you spray with this will die, and it will be hard to get anything else to grow in that spot, so use this solution wisely.