I recently spotted my next door neighbour out in his front garden, dousing the weeds with vinegar.
On enquiry, he told me that it was the best eco-friendly way to get rid of unwanted weeds.
Of course, I had never heard about this before, as I’ve been so busy making life difficult for myself all these years by getting down on my hands and knees and pulling them out by hand.
“Why don’t you just use weedkiller?”, says I, innocently.
Well, I hadn’t the question fully formed and out of my mouth before I heard all about the dangers of manufactured weedkiller.
I mean, we all know that pesticide-sprayed foods have far greater potential for harm than organic, non-pesticide sprayed foods, but what harm is using a chemical spray on nasty garden weeds?
I’ll tell you (via the very clever David who lives next door):
1. Cost:
Three litres of weedkiller at a general DIY or gardening shop can run anywhere up to €15.00, whereas three litres of household white vinegar will cost you about €3.00. No brainer.
2. Chemicals:
Many of the herbicides in use today are hormonal disruptors. If our kids are exposed to these herbicides, there is the potential for hormones imbalances and fertility problems in later life. Also there is the risk of contamination if you grow any vegetables in your garden that you plan on eating.
3. Not Effective:
Many supporters of natural products would say that the lawn care companies are truly only interested in making money and that if you take proper care of your lawn through cutting, watering, seeding and feeding that the need for weedkillers is completely eradicated.
So what does work?
Well, I am probably going to go back to the old-school method of pulling the weeds out by hand (because I’m a bit of a martyr) but when that gets too much for me, I may opt into the vinegar method.
Here’s what you do:
Simples!
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