Using weed killers in your garden is a very effective way to rid your garden of pesky weeds and unwanted plants, but it doesn't come without risk. While it may save your back and knees from the arduous task of pulling weeds, you need to know what you are doing, or other areas of your garden may be in danger...
In this blog, we will be looking at the best weed killer safe for plants and trees and that will kill weeds in the garden. We'll look at some non-chemical solutions, before listing some weed killers that contain chemicals. By the time you have finished this, you will know many ways to kill weeds, while protecting nearby plants.
Organic weed killers
Let's start with some 'natural' weed killers that might help you do the job. Where possible, most people like to keep chemicals out of their garden, understandably so. In the wrong hands, chemicals can do a lot of damage, so let's cover a few solutions that might help you avoid using them.
Boiling water
We'll start with one of the simplest solutions of all. If you pour boiling water on a weed, it will do a pretty good job of killing it - or at least, killing the parts that it comes into contact with. This can be good for cracks in paving slabs, or on other hard surfaces. You need to be careful, though, as it can harm plants and trees while it is still very hot.
The reason that it is quite safe to use around other plants is that it cools quickly, and therefore the time that it is dangerous to plants passes quite quickly. For the same reason, it is quite limited when it comes to killing weeds - if you take dandelions for example, they have quite deep roots, and so the waWeedter will cool before it reaches those parts, and the weed will grow back.
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice, as an acid, is very effective at killing weeds. You simply have to spray some on, and it will dry out the foliage, leaving it to shrivel up and die. The main issue in using lemon juice is that it generally comes in small quantities. So unless you want to spend a lot of time squeezing lemons, or a lot of money on plenty of shop-bought lemon juice, it's only really used for small areas of weeds.
White vinegar solution
The main active ingredient in white vinegar is acetic acid - and as we just discovered, acid can be very good at killing weeds. One of the pretty decent homemade weed killer recipes that we've come across has vinegar as its main ingredient, with some salt and dish soap. (1 gallon of vinegar, 1 cup of salt and one tablespoon of dish soap should do the trick).
The issues here are similar to lemon juice - it may not be a permanent solution - the weeds may grow back, and as you can see, you need an awful lot of vinegar. Not many of us have a gallon of the stuff in our kitchen cupboards! Again, though, this could be a useful solution for when you just have a small amount of weeds to deal with.
Mulch
Mulching is a good thing to do in your garden, whether you are trying to control weeds or not. This is because it adds nutrients to your soil that will help your plants and trees grow - and it also happens to be pretty decent as a natural weed killer.
Basically, it will smother the weeds - create a barrier that keeps them below the surface, and many will die as a result. It's not 100% effective, some will survive underground and still take up vital nutrients that your plants need, and some will fight their way out into the daylight, but this is a good habit to get into, and will certainly help with weed control.
Chemical Weed Killers
For a thorough job, it's probably best to use chemicals - provided that you know what you are doing, and that it is suited to the job. There's no need to resort to chemicals if your problem is relatively minor, but for those jobs that hand weeding isn't an option, and the organic weed killers would struggle to control, it's time to consider a herbicide.
There are two kinds - selective and non-selective. Let's look at each type:
Selective Weed Killers
These are clever products. They are designed to work on specific plants (generally unwanted ones) so are the best ones to use if you have lots of plants and trees around that you want to keep safe. They work by overstimulating weed growth, so that it is unsustainable and they eventually die. They won't harm grass, either.
They may not catch everything, and some weeds may persist. But selective weed killers are a good choice if you have plenty of plants and trees that you want to keep safe - especially in flower beds.
Maxicrop Moss Killer is a selective weed killer that targets moss, specifically on you lawn.
Non-selective Weed Killers
You may be able to guess already, but non-selective weedkillers are those that kill every plant that they come into contact with - whether you want to keep them or not.
These are great if you have a large area that is overrun with weeds - spray these weedkillers over the ground and in a few weeks it will be clear. You just need to be very careful not to kill anything that you want to keep.
Super Strength Glyphosate, Round Up 5 Litre and Hi Aktiv are all great examples of non-selective glyphosate weed killers, that will effectively kill weeds, and any other plants they touch.
Weed Killer Conclusion
If you want to control weeds while keeping other plants in your garden safe, then there are a range of different options. Hand weeding is the most natural, but it can be hard work and time consuming. There are plenty of organic options, mostly suited to small areas. Selective weed killers are probably the best bet, but you may have some stubborn weeds that remain afterwards. Non selective weed killers are emphatic, but you do risk harming plants and trees that you want to keep safe.
The best time for any kind of weed control is on a sunny day, with little wind, and without the risk of rain a few hours after application. Check out our range of weed killers, and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
