What Monsanto Doesn't Want You To Know...
...You don't need Round-Up® herbicide to kill dandelions. A couple of hours ago, I sprayed the dandelions in my yard with an incredibly effective non-discriminate herbicide, and I didn't kill any of the grass.
What is this wonder chemical, you may ask?
Vinegar.
Yes, that's right. Vinegar. Costs me about two bucks a gallon. The squirt bottle I used is an empty organic kitchen-cleaner squirt bottle. Wanna see what it did to my weeds?
This one was huge. Big, bushy, monstrous. Really, really healthy. Wish I'd taken a 'before' picture, but I didn't know I'd get such good results, and so fast. Anyway, here's what it looked like an hour after I sprayed it with straight vinegar:
Now, my yard has some pretty lush grass. I'm proud of it. I mow it twice a week, never water it, and don't use fertilizer. I learned everything I know from this article: Organic Lawn Care For the Cheap and Lazy. (I'm both cheap *and* lazy. Ideal, for me.) Needless to say, I didn't want to hurt the grass, I just wanted to kill the dandelion. I squirted a stream of vinegar slowly at each leaf, letting the broad leaves carry the fluid directly to the root, which is exactly what they do with rainwater to feed themselves. By doing this, I was using the dandelion's own means of successfully surviving in order to kill it. I let it drink straight vinegar, rather than rainwater. Here's how it looked, an hour later:
That's a dead dandelion. It isn't coming back. If I'd tried to dig it out, I'd have failed, and the damned thing would have regenerated from whatever root pieces were left. (Dandelion plants regenerate from root fragments. A new plant, from each fragment. That's how those clusters of weeds happen.) Those little tools designed to dig out dandelions do nothing but help them grow bigger and healthier and more numerous the next time around.
Dandelions are a huge problem in most of suburbia, as well as anywhere else that boasts a square inch of soil to root in. (they probably wouldn't be such a problem if we started eating them and using them for medicine.) The majority of suburbanites spend a fortune on herbicides produced by Monsanto, and completely fail to kill the weeds. Why? It isn't because Round-Up® doesn't work. It works just fine, IF you apply it exactly the way I applied the vinegar to those two dandelions, and the couple of dozen others out in my yard.
But.... why pay for Round-Up®, if straight vinegar works just as well, and has the benefit of not being a contact poison to humans and other animals?
Why, indeed.
What is this wonder chemical, you may ask?
Vinegar.
Yes, that's right. Vinegar. Costs me about two bucks a gallon. The squirt bottle I used is an empty organic kitchen-cleaner squirt bottle. Wanna see what it did to my weeds?
This one was huge. Big, bushy, monstrous. Really, really healthy. Wish I'd taken a 'before' picture, but I didn't know I'd get such good results, and so fast. Anyway, here's what it looked like an hour after I sprayed it with straight vinegar:
Now, my yard has some pretty lush grass. I'm proud of it. I mow it twice a week, never water it, and don't use fertilizer. I learned everything I know from this article: Organic Lawn Care For the Cheap and Lazy. (I'm both cheap *and* lazy. Ideal, for me.) Needless to say, I didn't want to hurt the grass, I just wanted to kill the dandelion. I squirted a stream of vinegar slowly at each leaf, letting the broad leaves carry the fluid directly to the root, which is exactly what they do with rainwater to feed themselves. By doing this, I was using the dandelion's own means of successfully surviving in order to kill it. I let it drink straight vinegar, rather than rainwater. Here's how it looked, an hour later:
That's a dead dandelion. It isn't coming back. If I'd tried to dig it out, I'd have failed, and the damned thing would have regenerated from whatever root pieces were left. (Dandelion plants regenerate from root fragments. A new plant, from each fragment. That's how those clusters of weeds happen.) Those little tools designed to dig out dandelions do nothing but help them grow bigger and healthier and more numerous the next time around.
Dandelions are a huge problem in most of suburbia, as well as anywhere else that boasts a square inch of soil to root in. (they probably wouldn't be such a problem if we started eating them and using them for medicine.) The majority of suburbanites spend a fortune on herbicides produced by Monsanto, and completely fail to kill the weeds. Why? It isn't because Round-Up® doesn't work. It works just fine, IF you apply it exactly the way I applied the vinegar to those two dandelions, and the couple of dozen others out in my yard.
But.... why pay for Round-Up®, if straight vinegar works just as well, and has the benefit of not being a contact poison to humans and other animals?
Why, indeed.