How to Make Homemade Weed Killer

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Homemade Weed Killer with Epsom salt and vinegar is simple to make – no poisons and no weeds! Let me show you how to make your own.

How to Make Homemade Weed Killer - No poisons and NO WEEDS! Find out how from Cosmopolitan Cornbread

As most of you know, we recently purchased our “forever home” where we are starting our own little farm and living life post-army. While this house is perfect for us, it isn’t exactly perfect. The yard was a bit neglected. Flowerbeds over-run with weeds, as well as the drive way, sidewalk and car area. Because I’m kind of big on doing things “green” (mainly for health reasons) I wasn’t keen on spraying a bunch of terrible poisons around my home. In a few months, I’ll have chickens running around here, and I would never want to expose them – or anyone else for that matter – to terrible chemicals.

Now the flower bed, of course I’ll have to weed by hand, because I plan on planting things in there. But the rest? Homemade weed killer to the rescue!

Making weed killer at home is very easy. It takes just a few minutes to mix up, and then all you need is a sprayer (like this one) and you can go about murdering weeds til your heart’s content.

Here’s what you need to make the spray:

  • 1 gallon white vinegar
  • 1 cup epsom salt (found in the health & first aid section of your store)
  • 1/4 cup blue Dawn dish soap (this one seems to work best for some reason)
  • garden sprayer
How to Make Homemade Weed Killer - No poisons and NO WEEDS! Find out how from Cosmopolitan Cornbread

Combine all of the ingredients in the jug of your sprayer, or you can do it right in the jug for the vinegar. Close it up and give it a shake. You’ll want to give it a few minutes for the salt to dissolve. Once it has, it’s ready!

Important Tips for Using your Weed Killer Spray:

You want to spray the weeds in the morning, after the dew has evaporated.

You also want to do this on a sunny day when it isn’t going to rain. The rain will of course wash away what you sprayed and will defeat the purpose.

As you can see here, these are the weeds along my drive, before I sprayed them. They were out of control.

How to Make Homemade Weed Killer - No poisons and NO WEEDS! Find out how from Cosmopolitan Cornbread

I sprayed the weeds, and a couple hours later…

How to Make Homemade Weed Killer - No poisons and NO WEEDS! Find out how from Cosmopolitan Cornbread

To show you the difference, here are un-sprayed weeds in the foreground, and sprayed weeds behind those. This stuff works!

How to Make Homemade Weed Killer - No poisons and NO WEEDS! Find out how from Cosmopolitan Cornbread

Now because you aren’t using nasty chemicals from a lab, this isn’t going to turn your driveway or sidewalk into a barren wasteland.

The weeds will grow back after a time, and you will need to repeat the process a few times each summer.

It’s not that big of a deal of you are wanting to kill weeds without spraying your environment with poisons. It’s a very reasonable trade-off in my book.

Another great homemade spray that I make is my spray for fire ants. Learn How to Kill Fire Ants Naturally. When I first tried it, I was extremely skeptical.

Fire ants love raised bed gardens, and I had one bed in particular, that half of the bed was a giant ant mound. The natural spray not only worked, but it shockingly lasted through the entire garden season.

Check out this collection for more articles and videos about homesteading, gardening and more.

6 thoughts on “How to Make Homemade Weed Killer”

  1. Hi!! I am concern about using your spray in the grass. I have dandylions and tissle. Will this kill the grass also. Please let me know.

    Reply
    • I personally don’t kill dandylions, but if that is what you are trying to get rid of, I would adjust your sprayer to a narrow stream and only spray the plants you are wanting to kill. Yes, this will kill grass if you spray it.

      Reply
  2. I wanted to see if you have used this weed killer in other places besides your driveway?
    I have flower beds, fruit trees, and raised veggie/flower beds that I have mulched to the grass… but the grass keeps growing into the mulch. I am constantly pulling/cutting the grass around the edges.
    It would be nice if I could just spray them a few times a year.
    Thanks,
    Toni

    Reply
    • No, I have not personally used it anywhere except places that I didn’t want any vegetation. I would be cautious about spraying it in a flower bed, as it may kill the flowers. I would guess that it would be fine around trees, but again, I have not tried that. Trees seem much more resilient.

      Reply
  3. I’m with you when it comes to spraying chemicals. This “recipe” seems like the better way to go.

    Reply

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