Our nineteen year old son, Aaron, is our resident landscaper.  Aaron has always been a budding entrepreneur and handy around the house and yard.  When he was thirteen years old, he took some of the monetary gifts that he had  received for his Bar Mitzvah celebration and purchased a bright red lawn tractor.  He convinced us to hire him as our resident gardener to earn back the cost of the tractor and he has acquired other garden tools since then, too.   For the past six years, Aaron has used his tractor to manicure our lawn and yard, his tiller to turn our flower and vegetable garden areas and his edger to edge our lawn.

Problem is…Aaron is studying in yeshiva this year in Israel.  We have had to manage without him and we have had to find easy solutions to our gardens’ overgrown messes. Don has been driving the tractor around the lawn and yard to cut the grass.  I have been planting the vegetable garden and mulching the flower beds.    Aaron will be home for a few weeks in the summer and we have lots of landscaping and maintenance waiting for his expert care.

One of the biggest problems is battling the weeds.   In the past, Aaron has tilled the garden beds with his gas-powered tiller which has cut down on the weeds.   This year, Don and I have had to figure all of it out on our own.  I have discovered this amazing homemade weed killer that does the job without the toxins found in most commercially available products.  This solution works best when used on a hot, sunny day and sprayed in the morning.  The sun will wither the sprayed weeds as long as there is no rain expected within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Here it is:

INGREDIENTS

1 gallon of white vinegar

1/2 cup salt

Squirt of Liquid dish soap (any brand)

 

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients until salt is dissolved and fill spray bottle with the solution.

Spray this solution on the weeds early on a hot and sunny day with no forecast of rain.

The weeds will wither and die.  Simple and Wow!

 

VARIATIONS

You can also use just the vinegar by itself in a spray bottle to battle the small weeds found in the cracks of your sidewalks, driveway or pavers.  Just spray it on on a hot morning  with no rain in the forecast.