Safe Natural Ways To Control The Weeds ~ Black Plastic Method

Frustrated by weeds in your yard? Weeds are not a pretty sight in your backyard. While reaching for a chemical weed spray may be a solution, there are safer natural ways to control the weeds.

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  I am not a fan of all the weeds that grow like crazy year-round. When it rains here, we get even more weeds. I live in the desert of Albuquerque New Mexico and we don’t get much rain here but this year we had an abundance of rain this past spring, way more than usual. I think we have even set records for the rain. So all that rain has meant more than the usual amount of weeds. So that has left me looking for a new way to control the weeds. I so want my summer yard cleanup day not to be an all-day project. I wanted a new way for weed control that does not involve any nasty toxic chemical products like Roundup as I do not want these cancer-causing chemicals in my yard.


Killing the weeds without toxic chemicals

 I usually spray the weeds that grow in my yard with a non-toxic homemade weed spray and that does a good job of killing the weeds quickly. This year has been different for weed control as the rain has left me with way too many weeds. I had sprayed the weeds with my DIY weed spray at the beginning of May and pulled way too many weeds, but more weeds grew. I think the windy spring that we had planted more seeds than usual this year and the rain caused them to grow.  So I am tired of pulling weeds and I am trying something different this year with my weed prevention to see if I can prevent the weeds from growing in the first place. I am looking at natural ways beyond pulling the weeds, to kill the weeds. I don’t want to use harmful chemicals in my yard like the stuff Monsanto produces. I have known for years that the weed sprays like Roundup have been linked to diseases like cancer so I have avoided using them in my yards for a long time. I love that the recent lawsuits against Monsanto have made people aware of the dangers of glyphosate.

Using black plastic to prevent weeds from growing

  My yard is made for the desert, so I do not have grass in my yard. My yard is xeriscaped with drought-resistant plants and rocks. I have a big yard that is loaded with rocks and weeds. One would think that weeds could not grow on the rocks, but they do. The weeds here have long roots that push their way through the rocks. So, I decided to see if laying thick black plastic on the ground could kill the existing weeds and prevent the weed seeds from growing. I discovered this technique online as this is a popular way to prepare the soil for growing a garden. The thick 2ml black plastic is supposed to keep the seeds from getting the sunlight that they need to grow. 

 The black plastic will heat things up and not allow the weeds to get exposed to light and this kills the weeds. You do have to leave the plastic cover over the ground for two months for all this to happen.  This method works best when the weather is warm, so summer is the ideal time. This technique is good for large spaces and it will kill everything growing underneath it so don’t lay the plastic over your grass unless you want to kill your grass. If you have a concrete patio that has weeds over it, this plastic would be great for laying over. Sure, laying down plastic means my yard looks ugly for a couple of months but if this works then I will have a nice yard for the rest of the year. 

 This black plastic method would be ideal for a space where you want to grow a garden. You can find this black plastic in the paint section at hardware stores and stores like Walmart. The plastic comes in rolls of different lengths. The plastic was easy to lay on the ground and I used bricks and rocks to hold it down. I mostly laid the plastic over the problem areas of my yard. I used big rocks and bricks to hold the plastic in place as it can get windy here. 

 When you do remove the plastic, I recommend wearing gloves and a face mask. The reason for this is there might be mold under the plastic from moisture. Then let the sun dry the land up for a couple days before cleaning up all the dead weeds. My friend who grew up on a farm recommends spreading limestone on the land to further kill the mold while my husband who is a health inspector says the sun will kill the mold.

Non-toxic homemade weed spray

 Another way that I kill the weeds is with a natural non-toxic weed spray that uses three ingredients. Most people even have these ingredients in their pantry. This safe weed spray does a great job of killing the weeds without chemicals. It is a safe weed spray that kills almost any plant that you spray it on. This safe homemade weed killer works in 24 hours. So, make sure to not spray it on your grass or it will kill it. I am able to use this spray in my yard as I spray it on the weeds that grow on my rocks. This DIY-safe weed spray is great for the weeds that grow on the sidewalk, driveway, or patio.

Items that you need to kill the weeds naturally



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Pulling the weeds

The most natural way to control the weeds is to pull them. This may work for the big weeds, but it really does not work for the ones with the long hard-to-pull root or those tiny pain-in-the-butt weeds. If you are one of the lucky people who only have a few weeds in their yard then pulling the weeds method works. My yard has way too many weeds for me to pull them all at once, but I will pull some of the weeds and then use the above methods also to control my weeds.

 These are some of the natural ways that I control the weeds in my yard. This is the first year that I am trying the black plastic method and I am hoping that it works to prevent the weeds from growing. I am not a fan of yard work and I really hate pulling weeds every year. I want to be able to enjoy my yard in the summer so I will do anything to control the weeds as long as it does not involve toxic chemicals. My yard is my place to relax and a place for my kids to play. My favorite place to relax in my yard is under the pergola on my purple Adirondack chairs that I restored myself a couple of years ago.


How do you control the weeds in your yard?



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