Naturally Eliminating Weeds
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Naturally eliminating weeds is a more environmentally friendly way to maintain a healthy outdoor space without relying on harsh chemical herbicides.
I have lots of weeds in my yard, but I don’t like to use chemicals. I care too much about the squirrels, raccoons, opossums, and the stray cats I feed on the porch.
Using weed killers in your yard carries measurable risks to human health, pets, soil life, and the environment.
Environmental and Yard Impact of Commercial Weed Killers:
- Soil Degradation: Chemical weed killers can leach into the ground, killing beneficial soil microorganisms, damaging soil structure, and reducing long-term soil fertility.
- Drift and Non-Target Damage: Wind can carry spray droplets onto desirable flowers, vegetable gardens, or neighboring properties, killing plants you want to keep.
- Water Contamination: Rain and irrigation runoff can wash herbicides into local storm drains, rivers, and ponds, threatening aquatic life.
- Pollinators: Herbicides and weed-and-feed products can harm honeybees and other beneficial insects that visit treated lawns.
With a little patience and simple gardening techniques, you can keep unwanted weeds under control while protecting the soil, beneficial insects, and pollinators.
One of the best approaches is to prevent weeds from taking hold in the first place. A healthy garden and regular maintenance can make a tremendous difference.
7 Natural Ways to Eliminate Weeds
1. Pull Weeds by Hand
Hand-pulling is one of the simplest and most effective natural methods. Pull weeds when the soil is moist after rainfall or watering to make it easier to remove the entire root system. Use a small hand tool for stubborn roots.
2. Apply a Layer of Mulch
Mulch is a wonderful natural weed deterrent. Spread two to three inches of shredded leaves, untreated wood chips, or straw around garden plants. Mulch blocks sunlight from reaching weed seeds while helping the soil retain moisture.
3. Use Cardboard to Smother Weeds
For larger areas, plain brown cardboard can help suppress existing weeds. Lay overlapping pieces over the unwanted vegetation, wet them thoroughly, and cover with compost or mulch. This works especially well when preparing a new garden bed.
4. Hoe Weeds While They Are Small
A garden hoe makes it easy to cut young weeds just below the soil surface. Work on a dry day so exposed weeds dry out rather than rerooting.
5. Plant Natural Ground Covers
Low-growing plants can fill empty spaces and compete with weeds for sunlight and growing room. Creeping thyme, ajuga, and other suitable ground covers can create an attractive living carpet.
6. Use Boiling Water Carefully
You can also use boiling water to kill weeds.
Boiling water can kill small weeds growing between patio stones or in driveway cracks. Pour carefully and directly onto the unwanted plants.
When applying, remember that it can also damage nearby desirable plants, roots, and soil organisms. Weeds with tougher roots may require multiple applications.
7. Recycle Fallen Leaves
Shredded fallen leaves make an excellent natural mulch. Spread them around established plants to help discourage weeds, protect soil, and gradually add organic matter as they break down.
Natural Weed Remedies to Avoid:
You may see recipes online recommending vinegar, salt, or homemade mixtures for weed control.
Household vinegar often fails to kill established roots. It can also burn plant foliage. Stronger horticultural vinegar can cause serious skin and eye injuries. So be careful when using vinegar in your garden.
I’ve read others mention that salt can be used. But salt can damage soil for a long time, making it difficult to grow desirable plants. Dish soap mixtures can also harm beneficial garden organisms.
For a healthier garden, stick with mulching, hand-pulling, and other physical weed-control methods.
Make Weed Prevention Part of Your Gardening Routine:
The secret to a weed-free garden isn’t necessarily eliminating every unwanted plant. It’s developing a routine that keeps weeds from becoming overwhelming.
Spend ten or fifteen minutes walking through your garden each week. Pull young weeds before they flower and set seed, refresh mulch when needed, and avoid leaving large patches of bare soil.
A little attention throughout the growing season can save hours of work later.
A garden should be a place of beauty and relaxation, not an endless battle with unwanted plants.
By working with nature rather than against it, you can create a healthier, more inviting garden without depending on chemical weed killers.
Using Plants as Ground Covers to Reduce Weeds:
Dense ground covers choke out weeds by blocking sunlight and competing for water and nutrients.
Many kinds of plants can provide ground cover in your yard. For instance, there is ajuga (or bugleweed), Japanese pachysandra, liriope, creeping thyme, and vinca minor. These plants are great for landscaping your yard by creating a carpet across the soil.
Planting a ground cover can help to crowd out unwanted weeds. It also protects the ground from water and nutrient loss caused by sun and wind.
Container Gardening:
You can also help to eliminate weeds by gardening in containers. This is a method I’ve used for years because of limited mobility. Container gardens can also create a beautiful display.
However, planting in containers does not keep weeds out completely.
This can happen because of wind-blown weeds (airborne weed seeds like dandelions) or contaminated soil, such as unsterilized topsoil. It’s always best to use sterile potting mix in your garden containers.
If your container sits directly on soil or grass, weed roots can grow up through the drainage holes. Nursery plants can sometimes have stray weeds in the pots.
But container gardening means fewer weeds to contend with.
The wind is picking up, so I should be hearing my bamboo chimes dancing just outside the French doors soon. That sound calms me. It’s so basic. So natural. That is the music I love to hear.
There they go. The bamboo chimes are chiming together, creating a sweet melody.
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Awesome tips Brenda! Thanks for sharing these. I keep forgetting about salt! Love and hugs!
Hello. If you go to youtube and do a search on deadheading petunias you can find some videos. Here is a video that has some good information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GvLgCL1d1Q
You want to remove the little ball that will hold the seeds because the plant will put energy into making the seeds rather than in producing more flowers.
I’ve used very hot water to kill weeds growing in the cracks of the sidewalk. Sometimes I’ve mixed in vinegar, but if I’m out of it, I’ve used just the hot water. For some reason I’ve never used salt, but it sounds like a good idea. But I wonder about the salt staying in the soil? I’ll have to look it up.
Thanks for some good information. If my little cat hears me running water in the kitchen or bathroom sink he will fly in and hop up to watch. He spends lots of time at different windows watching birds and squirrels. He has so much more energy than our other cat, who is a big snoozer. But I don’t think he has as much energy as Ivy!
Love reading your daily posts I’ve learned a lot of valuable information have a great day!
Thank you for all of the garden tips. I use vinegar and cinnamon all of the time. I have also read for an ant problem to put a small amount of corn meal where the ants are and they will carry the grains back to the nest and they will die, they can not digest corn meal. I have not tried it but will if the problem gets worse. Safe for animals.
Hope you are safe with all the storms around you. Just watching the news and that is all they are talking about. Hope Charlie and Ivy are ok, as my little Maggie was so scared when we would have a thunder storm.
Have a wonderful day.
I’m curious if any of the readers have ever tried the natural weedkillers on a large scale? As in a back pack sprayer for poison oak. We have about an acre and quite a bit of poison oak in some spots. I would love to kill it without roundup. And I’m glad to know I was actually dead heading my petunias correctly. Thank you! ?
I’ll be darned! I’ve been deadheading the wrong way, too! But I’m still not clear whether I should take the wilted blossoms off just below the little crown and leave the stem sticking up, which seems like it would look funny, or can I just pinch the whole stem off? But maybe the stem will just dry up and fall off after the blossom and crown is removed. Anyway, thanks for the tip.
Thanks, also, for all the natural weed-killing info. I have used vinegar before, but haven’t known about combining it with dish soap and salt. I’ll try that as I have plenty of weeds to spray!
Well, our weird weather continues here in lower Michigan. Rain, rain, rain and cold, cold, cold. The wetest and coldest May in memory. I have planted some annuals, but haven’t done much more except dug out a few weeds. But it’s so wet the soil just sticks to them and to the trowel. Where be the sun??
Take care and have a good week with your little furry babes.
Thank you so much for the weed killing tips… I hate chemicals. As always love your furbabies. Have a great week..hope therapy helped.
Praying you are okay and the bad storms do not hit where you are. Keep us advised!
Thanks for the Petunia tip ! I’ve been dead heading all wrong too ! Sweet pics of your fur babies. I know I have to keep making allowances for my spoiled kitties too ! Oh well.
I should have known all along it couldn’t be that easy! Deadheading is kind of a meditative task for me.
After reading your post, I carried my cinnamon spice jar out to the front porch and sprinkled cinnamon on the front porch ledge — ants have been visiting and they are not welcome. Thank you for the tip.
And it is absolutely amazing how versatile vinegar is. We use it to clean our kitchen counters and use it as weed control outside. I will be making a batch of the weed killer mixture that you presented.
The book you wrote about will be place on my To Read list — seems like a good “twisted” story.
Charlie’s little face looks like a heart — what a cutie. And Ivy looks as if she is looking for her next target.
Hope you have a wonderful Monday evening.
Seems I also read to wipe kitchen counters down with vinegar to deter ants. Have to look that up. Cinnamon will not kill ants. But they will not cross over a SOLID line of it. They will turn around and go the other way.
I love to read your Ivy antics – she’s such a little goofball, she certainly keeps you on your toes!! We had those storms yesterday too, and this afternoon we are in a severe storm warning. Possible hail, uh oh!! My seedlings that I planted out won’t like that!
I am worried about my plants and my patio.
Thank you for the deadheading information. I’ve actually wondered, as I lazily just pulled off the wilted flowers, if I should actually be pinching off the stem below the flowers. Now, I know!
Sherry in Little Rock
Hey, you were way ahead of us!
Love the use of natural things to kill weeds. It’s so much better than day Round Up now linked to cancer. Thanks for all the good timely tips.
I would never use Round Up.
My yard is literally all weeds, so I can’t spray it. 😉 However, I do use vinegar in a spray bottled for the weeds that crop up between the sidewalk cracks and by the driveway. It is cold here today – only 55 degrees – but will be 80 by Wed. We’ve had nothing but rain all month. And I heard on the news that we are forecasted to have a chance of rain every single day until the end of May! It’s been the weirdest weather month.
Yeah. Weird here too.
These weed-killing tips are so helpful, Brenda–thank you! The other day I noticed a large, quite arrogant weed sprouting up adjacent to our front door…and actually thought, “I know Brenda would know how to get rid of this naturally!” ?
Then these happened to be timely tips.
Stay safe today Brenda! OKC is a ghost town today! Schools closed, so many businesses closed all day or early!
I think they go overboard with this weather scare thing. I really don’t worry about it. Cause I’m not going anywhere to huddle where other people are. And there’s no place I even know about anyway. So I just don’t think about it much.
My fibromyalgia has kicked up the last few months. Thank you for the info on killing weeds and deadheading. I need for the time I am outside to count. If you have any fibromyalgia tips I would be happy to hear them too. Your blog is great and I enjoy each time I read it.
Sorry. I don’t have tips on fibromyalgia. So many suffer from it too.
It would be helpful to see a pic of where you will cut the petunia, with your tool of choice. It sounds like you mean cut the whole flower off, leaving just a stem. That can’t be what you mean.
There’s a little crown just under the flower. I just pinch it off with my fingers.
Hi, Brenda. What do you use to get rid of ants out of your pots? Thanks! 🙂
I don’t think I ever get rid of ants in my pots. But I sprinkle cinnamon in. They hate cinnamon. Just buy the cheap stuff.
I just read Ok is under tornado watch and for people to take precautions. That might explain the dark clouds and rain. Please stay safe. I really appreciate your tips. I live on an acre of land and we have to do weed abatement every year for fire. Just got it done this past wknd and it was $700. It’s a huge job. That’s why we do container planting.
So much easier for someone like me and so many others who have a lot of arthritis to just plant in containers. And that’s how people in wheelchairs can garden too.
Good info to know; thanks Brenda.
Stay safe, I hear there have been tornadoes in your neck of the woods.
Yeah, it’s still dark out. I don’t follow the weather here. I figure there’s nowhere I’m going except my bathroom or hall if it hits. So why worry about it.
Weather’s been wacky in N.Y. too.
It was pouring rain this morning early and now the sun is shining.
My daughter’s cat will start messing with her blinds if she’s not getting the attention she deserves…the zoomies are a daily occurrence here,Buddy manages to touch each piece of furniture at record speed!
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How on earth do they go that fast and are able to gauge just how far to jump?
Thanks so much for info on getting rid of weeds and the proper way to deadhead!
I truly learn something new everyday it seems.
Hope your physical therapy is helping. Thank you for the weed killer ideas, so much better than the ones with all the chemicals