Banish Weeds Without Chemicals — It’s Probably Not What You Think!

I have a long standing battle with the weeds in our yard.  We have several fairly large gravel areas that get taken over by weeds.  Every spring I spend hours upon hours weeding them by hand.  Then I continue the battle all summer long.  I can never spend enough hours at a time to complete the job so it’s a never-ending circle that frustrates me to no end!

My husband keeps telling me I should just spray them with Roundup and get it over with but I hate using stuff like that where my kids play.  Besides, we’ve tried using it in the past and I wasn’t really that impressed with the results.

This year I think I finally found my solution.  It begins with this but there’s one more thing that is the real kicker so keep reading!:

I picked up a 1 gallon weed sprayer at Home Depot and mixed the following together inside:

• 2 Cups Epsom Salt
• 1/4 Cup Dawn Dish Soap
• About a gallon White Vinegar (whatever fits to the fill line on the sprayer jug)

The key to this stuff actually working is to use it on a hot and sunny day.  That can be a problem here in the Seattle area.  I had to do some planning but I was able to spray on a good weather day.  The sun helps the solution dry out and kill the weeds.  They shrivel up and turn brown but they don’t just go away.  You’ll be left with a bunch of ugly dead weeds rather than live green ones.

Here’s what part of my backyard looked like after I sprayed it:

Most of the weeds are dead.  It did rain for a few days before taking this picture and you can see that some of the weeds are still pretty green.  These are the larger weeds and ones that were likely in the shade for a good portion of the time immediately following spraying.

So, now what?  The weeds are dead but they are still ugly.  What is the point of spraying them if I still have to pull them out by hand?  Yeah.  Exactly.  Until now I thought this was the stupidest thing ever.  There is a really good reason this time around though.  It’s this:

It’s my new BernzOmatic JT850 Lawn and Garden Torch and it LOVES dead, dry weeds.  It gobbles them up like candy.  Now instead of spending hours picking weeds out of rocks, I can just torch them!

This thing is so easy to use.  Just screw on the small sized propane tanks and use the ignition button to light it.  Move the flame back and forth over the areas you want to torch holding it about 2 inches above the ground.  Check this out:

I’m not going to lie.  This still took some time because it was a pretty big job and partly because I torched before everything had enough time to dry after it had rained.  Still, it was a lot easier and faster than pulling each and every single weed.  Honestly, it was a lot more fun too!  Who wouldn’t love to have a reason to torch some stuff?!  The flame just destroys the weeds!

I will say that I was still sore after carrying around the tank for several hours.  Nothing a little bit of Panaway couldn’t erase though!

For about $50 I got the torch and 2 propane tanks at Lowe’s.  One tank lasts a couple of hours of straight torching.  I burned through that one the first day and went at it again a few days later with my second tank.  I worked in a much larger area than just what I’ve shown here although this area was one of the worst areas for weeds.

The BernzOmatic torch head is only $36.72 and the 14.1 oz propane tanks are only about $4 each.  It’s a small price to pay for all the time and effort this puppy saves me!  Keeping our gravel areas maintained is going to be such a piece of cake now!

Feeling lucky?  Enter to win a $50 Lowe’s gift card to purchase a torch of your own by filling out the form below.

A complimentary product/service was provided for this review, however, all opinions expressed are my own.  I was not compensated in any other way.  See Mommies With Cents disclosure policy for more details. Also, be sure to check out all of our other giveaways. NOTE: If you don’t leave your address, I won’t have a way to get your prize to you. If you need more guidance filling out this form, you can watch this video on how to enter Rafflecopter giveaways.

This giveaway is open until May 14, 2015 at 12:01 am EST to U.S residents.

Your information is confidential and used for contacting the winner and prize fulfillment purposes only.

 

I have a long standing battle with the weeds in our yard.  We have several fairly large gravel areas that get taken over by weeds.  Every spring I spend hours upon hours weeding them by hand.  Then I continue the battle all summer long.  I can never spend enough hours at a time to complete the job so it’s a never-ending circle that frustrates me to no end!

My husband keeps telling me I should just spray them with Roundup and get it over with but I hate using stuff like that where my kids play.  Besides, we’ve tried using it in the past and I wasn’t really that impressed with the results.

This year I think I finally found my solution.  It begins with this but there’s one more thing that is the real kicker so keep reading!:

I picked up a 1 gallon weed sprayer at Home Depot and mixed the following together inside:

• 2 Cups Epsom Salt
• 1/4 Cup Dawn Dish Soap
• About a gallon White Vinegar (whatever fits to the fill line on the sprayer jug)

The key to this stuff actually working is to use it on a hot and sunny day.  That can be a problem here in the Seattle area.  I had to do some planning but I was able to spray on a good weather day.  The sun helps the solution dry out and kill the weeds.  They shrivel up and turn brown but they don’t just go away.  You’ll be left with a bunch of ugly dead weeds rather than live green ones.

Here’s what part of my backyard looked like after I sprayed it:

Most of the weeds are dead.  It did rain for a few days before taking this picture and you can see that some of the weeds are still pretty green.  These are the larger weeds and ones that were likely in the shade for a good portion of the time immediately following spraying.

So, now what?  The weeds are dead but they are still ugly.  What is the point of spraying them if I still have to pull them out by hand?  Yeah.  Exactly.  Until now I thought this was the stupidest thing ever.  There is a really good reason this time around though.  It’s this:

It’s my new BernzOmatic JT850 Lawn and Garden Torch and it LOVES dead, dry weeds.  It gobbles them up like candy.  Now instead of spending hours picking weeds out of rocks, I can just torch them!

This thing is so easy to use.  Just screw on the small sized propane tanks and use the ignition button to light it.  Move the flame back and forth over the areas you want to torch holding it about 2 inches above the ground.  Check this out:

I’m not going to lie.  This still took some time because it was a pretty big job and partly because I torched before everything had enough time to dry after it had rained.  Still, it was a lot easier and faster than pulling each and every single weed.  Honestly, it was a lot more fun too!  Who wouldn’t love to have a reason to torch some stuff?!  The flame just destroys the weeds!

I will say that I was still sore after carrying around the tank for several hours.  Nothing a little bit of Panaway couldn’t erase though!

For about $50 I got the torch and 2 propane tanks at Lowe’s.  One tank lasts a couple of hours of straight torching.  I burned through that one the first day and went at it again a few days later with my second tank.  I worked in a much larger area than just what I’ve shown here although this area was one of the worst areas for weeds.

The BernzOmatic torch head is only $36.72 and the 14.1 oz propane tanks are only about $4 each.  It’s a small price to pay for all the time and effort this puppy saves me!  Keeping our gravel areas maintained is going to be such a piece of cake now!

Feeling lucky? Enter to win a $50 Lowe’s Gift Card so you can pick up a weed torch of your own by filling out the form below.

A complimentary product/service was provided for this review, however, all opinions expressed are my own.  I was not compensated in any other way.  See Mommies With Cents disclosure policy for more details.

 Also, be sure to check out all of our other giveaways. NOTE: If you don’t leave your address, I won’t have a way to get your prize to you. If you need more guidance filling out this form, you can watch this video on how to enter Rafflecopter giveaways.

This giveaway is open until May 14, 2015 at 12:01 am EST to U.S residents.

Your information is confidential and used for contacting the winner and prize fulfillment purposes only.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway