How to Get Rid of Lawn Weeds

Weeds are annoying and unsightly and can draw moisture and nutrients away from your grass and other plants. Although killing weeds naturally may seem difficult, implementing an organic lawn care plan to prevent and kill them is easier than it seems. This blog will detail how to kill weeds in your lawn without chemicals, how to use natural lawn weed killer, and where to buy weed control products.

Can You Kill Weeds Without Chemicals?

Although chemical companies would have you believe that using pesticides on your grass is the only lawn weed killer option, we’re here to tell you that, yes, you can achieve the lawn of your dreams with organic and natural weed killer. There are a few ways that you can kill weeds naturally without adding chemicals to your lawn:

• Maintain a healthy yard
• Dig out weeds
• Use natural weed killer
• Use a flame weed killer

How to Maintain a Healthy Lawn 

The first and most important way to keep your lawn beautiful and avoid a chemical lawn weed killer is by maintaining happy, healthy grass. Many people believe you must spend hours every week working in your yard to make it the envy of the neighborhood, but it’s not as difficult or time-consuming as you would think.

You can keep your lawn healthy by:

• Implement a routine yard maintenance plan
• Supplement the soil’s nutrients with organic lawn fertilizer
• Add mulch and landscape fabric to flower beds and gardens to prevent weeds from growing

A yard care plan doesn’t have to take hours and consume your weekends. Understanding the necessary adjustments your soil and grass need to grow strong and healthy is the first step in creating an easy yard care plan. We recommend using a soil microbiometer to test for soil health at least twice a year and then using an organic microbial inoculant to adjust any needed microbial additions if necessary.

Another natural weed killer is landscape fabric. Also known as weed barrier fabric, this ground cover is a woven sheet with small perforations that allow water to flow through but prevent weed growth. There are a few natural alternatives to landscape fabric, including newspaper, cardboard, and mulch.

Unfortunately, the dyes in newspaper and cardboard can harm your plants, which is why mulch is the best and most efficient natural weed killer. Adding four inches of mulch to your garden will sufficiently suffocate any weeds that try to grow while still supporting plant nutrients and water drainage.

Should You Dig Out Weeds? 

If you want to use a weed barrier fabric, you’ll still need to dig out the weeds in the area that you’re looking to cultivate. The best natural weed killer is your two hands and a sturdy garden knife. Use a tool to dig up weeds in your yard by the root and repeat the process often. If you’re planning to use your hands as lawn weed killers, try wetting the soil before you dig so that the roots are easier to remove.

Natural Weed Killers

Natural weed killers are substances that don’t use chemicals to remove weeds from your lawn. Organic lawn weed killers come in wide varieties, so it’s important to research before picking one and spraying anything you can get your hands on.

When shopping for a natural weed killer, consider whether it’s selective or non-selective, environmentally friendly, and safe to use around pets and kids. Although natural weed killers are meant to be safe, you can still end up causing damage to yourself, the surrounding grass, or the environment if you don’t read carefully.

Natural weed killer can be purchased as a concentrate or applied in a pre-mixed formula with a spray bottle. If you have large areas to treat and are comfortable mixing and spraying the lawn weed killer, purchasing a concentrate is a great option. We recommend treating any walkways, cracks in sidewalks, and areas near your lawn with natural weed killer at the same time as the rest of your grass so that seeds don’t blow and begin growing after your hard work.

Alternative Lawn Weed Killer

A less conventional way to kill weeds is by using a flame weeder. If you live in an area experiencing dry conditions or drought, you should not use a flame weeder. There are a few pros and cons to this type of natural weed killer, with the most prominent pro being a lack of any type of chemicals or herbicides and the con being the fact flame weeders only kill the surface weeds and not the roots below.

Best Lawn Weed Killer

The best lawn weed killer is a combination of prevention and reaction. Keeping your lawn healthy creates thick and lush grass with deep, robust root systems. Healthy grass is better equipped to withstand damage from weeds, pests, weather changes, and other environmental factors. In addition, creating a lawn care plan will help put your grass on a schedule for fertilizer and maintenance, which will help it grow and make upkeep easy.

You can either purchase your fertilizers and lawn weed killer separately or select a plan that combines the entire process. When shopping for natural or organic products, be sure to look at research that the company has conducted on the efficiency of its products and any dangers it lists.

Be sure to wear safety equipment, including goggles, gloves, and clothing that covers your skin when applying any sort of fertilizer or weed control product to your lawn, regardless of how safe it is. Also, read and follow any instructions for keeping pets and children away from the area and avoid treating weeds if rain is expected that day to prevent water runoff from damaging other plants. You can read more about how we recommend applying weed killer on our blog! 

Why Rocky Mountain BioAg®? 

Purchasing weed control products from a company you trust ensures you treat your yard with the utmost care. Rocky Mountain BioAg® is backed by more than a decade of scientific research and collaboration with the best in the business. We have everything you need to prevent, treat, and remove weeds in your yard, options for pet-friendly ice melts, tips and tricks for container gardening and soil health, and a great selection of garden tools and equipment. No matter the size of our yard, Rocky Mountain BioAg® will ensure you’re the envy of the neighborhood.