Weed eradication programs for most starts in the herbicide aisle of the local home and garden type store but the visit may not be necessary. You might have everything you already need in your kitchen – water and vinegar.

Boiled Water: I read about this on Ecomii.com and had to try it. Boil a kettle of water and pour it on your weeds. It’s that simple. Literally, within 30 minutes, the base of the weeds will turn a brown color and soon flattened on your patio like limp lettuce.

Vinegar: The active, natural weed killer in vinegar is acetic acid. Careful application via spray bottle or focused pour is important because vinegar is indiscriminate and can kill your grass. Normal grocery store vinegar is 5% acetic acid and may have to be applied several times in order to kill your weeds. You can get vinegar with acetic acid concentrations of 10%+ from a restaurant or farmer’s supply store but you magnify the risk to the nearby plants.

Boiled Vinegar: Why not connect with both weed cheeks with one kick by boiling your vinegar? The scalding water will start the process and the concentrated acetic acid in the boiled vinegar will take care of the rest.

If your neighbor comes out every couple days looking like a retired Ghostbuster spraying the Agent Orange on everything green and unwelcome, mention the scalding water and/or vinegar trick. You probably won’t convince him to change over to boiled anything so do your best to avoid operation weeding thunder.

Give any combo of boiled water, vinegar or boiled vinegar a shot and see if you get the results you want. You will have to invest a little extra time to kill your weeds but atleast you won’t have to face the possible collateral damage and long-term risks associated with herbicides.