Get rid of weeds without using chemicals.

In the persuasion of green-speak, when summer's atrocious and rampant sweeps of weeds hit your gardens, patios, and sidewalks, be glad to know there are natural and environmentally-friendly alternatives to chemicals sprays.

As the co-founder and co-manager of the organic community garden in Kutztown, Berks County, Pa., Robyn Jasko easily advocates using vinegar or boiling water to safely kill off aggressively plentiful weeds.

Jasko is also the founder and editor of the goindie, growindie, travelindie, and dineindie websites and the author of Homesweet Homegrown: How to Grow, Make and Store Food, No Matter Where You Live; she presses forward in sustainability through lectures, demonstrations, and any opportunity to show people her knowledge in gardening.

Her general rule of thumb when tackling the problem of weeds is to apply undiluted vinegar onto the plants on a very sunny, day-- the hotter the tempatures, the better. The vinegar will kill any foliage it touches, over a period of 24 hours. 

Using a pumping sprayer, which you can buy at any home improvement store, is a more volume-conscious way to attack more weeds at once when they are vast and persistent in certain areas of the yard.

"All vinegars, undiluted, will work well again weeds, but the higher the concentration, the faster it works. Five percent vinegar work, well, but 20 percent vinegar works in as little as a few hours to kill weeds," Jasko says. "Always wear gloves to protect your hands against vinegar or boiling water weed applications."

With boiling water and pouring it over weeds, it's crucial to make sure to reach the roots in order for it to work successfully.

"And I am a huge fan of mulching with newspaper paper and straw to naturally block out light and prevent weeds from growing in the first place, versus dumping a bunch of Roundup and pesticides on your food or lawn to kill existing weeds," Jasko says.

"Chemical weed killers are extremely toxic to plants, people, animals, and everything they come near. The runoff from these pesticides is also extremely scary, as it gets into the water supply and destroys the eco-system," Jasko mentions in referencing an article published by the Rodale Institute based in Maxatawny Township, Berks County, Pa. "Plus, after several applications, there are diminishing returns, and you get this new generation of super weeds which are resistant to Roundup and chemical pesticides."

And when not using vinegar or boiling water to tackle weeds, Jasko doesn’t mind pulling some by hand.

“I actually save a pile of weeds and let them dry out in the sun for a day or so, and then use them as mulch to block out more weeds,” Jasko says. “There is something especially satisfying about using weeds to mulch weeds.”