Weeds are capable of growing into, and or worsening, any cracks in patios or paving stones.
Their seeds and roots are very small, meaning they are often undetectable. But, like with dandelions dandelions, it is possible to kill any weeds growing in patios so that they don’t come back.
To get rid of these plants, many gardening enthusiasts debate whether natural methods work – some of which include boiling water, salt and white vinegar.
Intrigued to find out whether a regular weedkiller is the best option to get rid of patio weeds, one woman took to social media to put it to the test against white vinegar.
White vinegar is considered to be one of the strongest natural weedkillers there is, thanks to its relatively high acetic acid content.
This non-toxic chemical works by removing the moisture from weeds, and killing them via the process of dehydration.
TikToker @itsme_mandi posted a video documenting the results. On one side she had sprayed weedkiller on the patio weeds, then on the other side, she used white vinegar.
She said: “I saw a hack where you can use white vinegar to get rid of the weeds. On one half of the patio, I did weedkiller and on the other half I used vinegar in a spray bottle.”
Mandi showed viewers the results after 12 hours on the vinegar side of the patio first and the weeds had turned a pale brown shade.
Moving over to the weedkiller side, the weeds still looked healthy and green after the same 12 hours.
The TikToker then checked back in several days later and the weeds on the vinegar side of the patio looked completely dead.
While the weeds on the weedkiller side of the patio appeared to be dying, Mandi argued that the white vinegar “worked faster”.
She said: “The vinegar side actually worked faster to kill the weeds than the weedkiller side. Overall I will be using vinegar to kill the weeds.”
The acetic acid of vinegar dissolves the cell membranes resulting in desiccation of tissues and death of the plant.
This is a great outcome for the plague of weeds invading a garden, but it is important not to get it on other garden plants as it will kill them too.
Some argue that white vinegar can be made even more effective when mixed with a bit of dish soap to break down the plant’s outer layers.
White vinegar is cheap to purchase from supermarkets as it can be picked up from Tesco for just 29p.
