DIY green weed killer

One thing I've been terrible about keeping up with since having a baby is our yard. I just kinda don't care. I used to go out nearly every weekend and pick weeds and groom our front and back yards. Since having Jacob, and especially since getting pregnant, the thought of going outside in the heat and humidity to pick weeds gives me hives! And of course we're too cheap to pay someone to do it!

I thought about spraying some chemical weed killer down. Don't get me wrong, we use chemicals on our yard. But Jacob spends an insane amount of time in our flower beds (lovely, I know) and I really don't want him getting into that nasty stuff!

Insert >> DIY green weed killer!

I definitely had my doubts. I mean, have you seen our flower beds?

Let's start with ingredients.

You'll need:
1/2 gallon distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup salt
2 tbsp. dish soap

Mix all these ingredients up in a watering can or spray bottle. Make sure you label this, especially if you're using a watering can, because it will kill everything it touches and I'd hate for you to use said watering can on your actual flowers later.

After you've mixed it all up, pour a liberal amount on your weeds. You want to really saturate the area. Also you want to do this on a hot and sunny day, the hotter the better, as it really helps to dry out the weeds.

Isn't that awful? I'm kinda embarrassed.

Can you see how wet it is?

This is after 1 day. Can you believe that?! I couldn't either!

The dish soap helps to break down the protective coating on the leaves and the salt and vinegar completely dries out the weeds.

This picture was taken 2 days later.

At this point, I went in with a hand rake and was able to easily rake up all the dead weeds and pick the few that didn't die (those things are pesky!).

Good luck!