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Clove Oil Based Herbicide
With so much rapid growth in your flower beds, it’s important to be able to spray once in a while to control the undesirable plants to save time and your back! It’s also convenient to spray around the bases of trees in the yard to simplify seasonal mowing duties. Perhaps you weren’t aware that clove oil can be used as a strong, yet nontoxic herbicide in your yard. It is stronger than the vinegar and salt based herbicides that you may have tried in the past.
It is very expensive to buy clove oil based herbicides at the organic nurseries, so be aware that you can make them yourself much less expensively.
8 TBL clove oil (this would equate to one 4 oz bottle for about $10 available at your healthfood store)
1 gallon water
12 drops dishwashing liquid (nontoxic adjuvant which helps clove oil more easily penetrate the leaves)
Mix gently
Spray this mixture on all undesirable plants early in the morning after the dew dries making sure it will not rain at all that day. Take care not to spray desirable plants as this mixture will burn any plant’s foliage, not just weeds. Weeds should begin to wilt and die within 8 hours or less! I sprayed around my yard on a Saturday morning and many of the weeds were wilted and dead by dinnertime. Plus, my yard smells fabulous from the lovely clove scent!
Be aware that clove oil will burn your skin if it comes into contact, so it is wise to use gloves and protective goggles if applying on a breezy day.
Corn Meal
Once you have eliminated the weeds with your clove oil herbicide, you can prevent them from coming back by sprinkling corn meal in your flower beds and other areas to control new weed growth.
I usually reapply every month or so, and it sure does save a lot of time and effort preventing the weeds from growing in the first place! You will find over time that using corn meal will result in less and less weed growth.
The effectiveness of this treatment definitely grows with long term use.
Boiling Water
I use a boiling tea kettle of water to eliminate those pesky weeds that spring up between bricks, pavers, and concrete seams. It also works quite well to eliminate ant piles from your yard! It may take 2 or even 3 treatments before the ant pile is completely dead, but I have found this to be the best nontoxic way to get rid of those little critters without using any poison.
I hope you find these green yard tips helpful in your neck of the woods. It is so nice to know that your children are playing in a yard that is pesticide and herbicide free!
Blood: The Gift of Life and Health
Cool! Thanks for the tips. I am going to try them all.
Hope they help! Wet the leaves thoroughly with the clove oil mixture. I've had great results on weeds with this.
You can get a 4oz bottle of clove oil at this link for only $7
This really works? It will get rid of my dandylion garden that is my front lawn? Excited to try it. Thanks!
Would this possibly work on dollar weeds, too? We moved into this house here in Trinity. We don't spray because of our children but now have tons of dollar weed, aside from other weeds. We just got a letter yesterday from our assoc. to get rid of the weeds. If we do not comply within 30 days, they will send someone to do it at an insanely inflated rate or fine us. I don't want to be forced to use chemicals so am trying to find a non-toxic remedy that will work.
I don't know if it would work on dollar weeds or not(I don't know what they are actually .. I'm not a weed expert by sight). It works very well on all the weeds in my yard. Not so well on grass though.
Hi Sarah, will this solution kill my grass too if I spray the weeds in my grass? We have some terrible weed spreading and I don’t know how to get rid of it without also killing my grass.
The clove oil will kill grass too. The corn meal will not kill established plants including grass. It simply inhibits new weeds from taking root.
My suggestion is to learn to live with the few weeds embedded in grass. A perfect lawn is a recipe for ill health because of the amount of chemicals required to maintain it. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-lunacy-of-the-american-lawn/
Great post Sarah! In New Zealand, they used to have big tanks of water that they heated to boiling and then sprayed on weeds along the road–the most environmentally friendly way to get rid of them. I think you can get
portable devices to spray boiling water on weeds. Here's something about this: http://eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/JPR/JPR_27.htm
Sally Fallon Morell
The Weston A. Price Foundation®
The company called Gardens Alive has wonderfully effective non-toxic weed control/fertilizer that is corn based, and an iron based weed killer. They also offer many organic and natural fertilizers, insect control options, etc.
Just came to this page and am very excited. My question is: since it is nigh on to impossible to buy non GMO corn anything………will using the corn meal render my garden “non organic” anymore?
Thanks
I was wondering this exact same thing!?
That’s a great question Dorsey. I got my corn gluten from an organic nursery so I’m assuming its not GMO. Whatever brand you buy, call the company to confirm.
Do you sprinkle the cornmeal just on top of the bed? Can you use it around your edible plants? Want to make sure I won’t kill anything I want growing in the garden. The weeds are out of control this year!
We spray white vinegar on weeds that grow in the cracks on and around the driveway and pavers. You don’t have to worry about accidentally burning yourself. It kills most weeds within a day or two; some may take a bit longer. It’s pretty inexpensive. We use white vinegar every day for laundry and cleaning.