Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an intergral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on it's evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
-
Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
-
Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
-
Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
-
Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
-
Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
-
Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
-
If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
-
Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Another question... What's an effective and natural weedkiller? I don't want to harm bees. I do want to kill weeds!
straight vinegar, its all you need. Spot kill, dont drench any other area, as the intense acidity will not allow you to grow anything else until you amend the soil for ph. I had an intense patch of stinging nettle, way beyond what I needed for medicinal use, or give away for that purpose, it creates a net of woven roots, like a carpet I used vinegar, , after chopping off the tops, covered the area with white vinegar, then covered that with black plastic mulch for the summer, its gone now forever. Burdock roots are another story, they grow 3ft into the ground I just cut them back. Thank you for not putting toxins in the soil.
I live in Arizona, so when I’m spraying for weeds, I don’t have to worry about the bees so much. There’s no flowers on our weeds, and it’s just rocks and dirt.
However, since I’ve done home repairs for quite a while now, and I have taken care of my mother’s property slowly, if you’re not using poison, it’s really hard to kill weeds.
I use killzall. You can get it on Amazon, Home Depot, or ace hardware. It’s really expensive, but you don’t have to use a lot because it’s a concentrate. It’s the best weed killer I’ve ever had and used. I just ordered some and it came in the mail a couple days ago.
I received a small bottle from a yard guy who used to do our yard, he had a little left, so he gave it to me. It’s been the best. But it kills everything anything that touches it will kill.
Good luck with the weed, cause they can be a real pain in the you know what
Ronstar is a good pre-emergent my landscaper recommends and used on our extensive landscape.
Thanks I looked it up online, I’m saving the page
Does this kill the weeds permanently? I'm in North Carolina and we might just have every weed that's in existence. It's an old family property. Except for my yard the rest is weeds. My grandfather planted crabgrass decades ago for ground cover. It's impossible to pull up, roots are long and spread out. My husband and dad (my neighbor) use roundup because it's the only thing that works. I know it's bad and I'm not a fan but can't have weeds taking over.
Just like the name says it kills all! Any vegetation that it touches it will kill it. But when I spray for weeds in my yard, which is all rocks because I live in Arizona, I don’t you spray the weeds were there coming up, I spray the entire yard with all the rocks. But I focus on where the rocks meet the cement, that’s where a lot of weeds tend to sprout up. But as long as you’re covering the entire area, in a few days, it’ll start dying off. Then it’s just clean up after that. But yes, crabgrass can be really nasty unless you’re going to get some type of Rototiller and tear up your entire yard. This killzall should work. I think it’s 30 bucks for a quart. It says 2 1/2 teaspoons per gallon, but I put in 4 1/2. Lol.
Boiling water is good If you have weeds in gravel or through bricks or cracks in concrete. There is also a propane weed burner if it is a non flammable area.
You need to get the roots with crab grass, not sure if vinegar will do it. I have had the best luck hand pulling and using a small trowel to get roots of tenacious weeds. Easiest after the rain. It is tedious, but also soothing and calms the mind. Unlike the internet!
We are getting rain and a cold front tomorrow, so if it's warm enough, I will do it Friday.
I think vinegar kills plants but not the roots. Once I poured out a large bowl of white vinegar and it killed the grass. The grass eventually came back maybe because it's centipede.
I mixed some salt, vinegar, and dish soap to pour on crab grass. Will see if it works.
I've used this mixture before also.
Here's an easy mixture to help you get rid of ants and maybe other bugs as well.
Mix water & dawn ...
use enough to make the water a little lighter in color of the soap, though of course it's the soap that kills the ants, so judge for yourself. The water helps the soap soak into the dirt and go down into the ant bed easier. Pour the mixture to saturate the ant bed, as much as you want, the more the better. I like to piss them off a bit by sticking a stick in a few spots on the mound to get them to the top so when I pour mixture on it kills more ants, and the holes you make helps to get the liquid down further in the bed. I make a gallon size container full and walk around the yard to pour on beds, sometimes during the summer I have to remake the mixture a few times. Though I like to pour a lot on. I don't want to get bit and don't want my pups to get bit. And the mixture won't harm your pups, you can bathe your pups with dawn soap.
It works great to kill a ton of ants, of course as with any ant killer the ones that live will relocate, but just keep after them. Check the ant beds the next day and you will see a bunch of dead ants on top of bed (on bigger beds anyways).
You can also mix a small amount of dawn (like just a few drops into a small spray bottle of water) into water to help kill or keep bugs on plants. I've even sprayed the soil in my garden with a small spray bottle to kill pretty large ant beds in my garden.
You can also use coffee grounds in your garden to keep ants out, they don't like coffee grounds, I don't think it kills them but keeps them out of garden soil and it's safe for plants.
Thanks! I didn't know that would kill ants. We always have a lot and the buggers bite me every time I mow my yard. Bah!
Thanks, I've killed regular ants with hot water or vinegar separately. Even used grits, ants eat grits and they explode. Fire ants are a different breed. It's very hard to kill them. Even poison or gas doesn't kill them all. They are so deep in the ground. A guy I used to work with said gun powder works, shooting mound with a shot gun. My husband says bullets are to expensive. I agreed.
Good luck. Soap kills bugs on plants. Not fire ants, nothing but poison and gas kills them. Gas is to expensive. They have taken over! Also, if you need to kill weeds or grass you can put down cardboard or a tarp for a long time, maybe a month. Double check that time period. Weeds will still come back unless you are doing something permanent.
Thanks! We use a soapy spray for our lime tree and tomato plants during the summer. Seems to help.