how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful

On 16 Feb 2004 05:58:34 -0800, (jackie) opined:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful

Weeds don't like being pulled out. When you pull the out, they die! It's
called "weeding." It's a verb and part of the other verb, "to garden."
However, if you want to step over the line, Finale is a weed killer which is the
safer of the dangerous ones. I've never used it, but read the label beginning
to end. Also, they sell a tool called the Weed Popper. It's a great tool. The
Weed Hound is not AS good, but it works well for you listed weeds provided the
soil is not hardpan dry.

"jackie" wrote in message
m...
how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer
for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful

"Organic" is not a magic word. Organic poisons are no more and
no less poisonous than any other poison. If it is strong enough
to kill -- anything -- then it is a potential danger.

The blessings of "organic" are environmental -- NOT safety.
Generally speaking (and note the caveat), organic poisons don't
sit around and stay poisonous for long after they're applied.
But while they are active, they do what they are supposed to do.
Kill.

The only "organic" herbicide I know of is vinegar -- but it's not
the vinegar that you buy at your local supermarket, but a
concentrated -- and therefore more dangerous -- acid. There may
be others.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nor, does
"organic" mean "non-chemical."

"jackie" wrote in message
m...
how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer
for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful

"Organic" is not a magic word. Organic poisons are no more and
no less poisonous than any other poison. If it is strong enough
to kill -- anything -- then it is a potential danger.

The blessings of "organic" are environmental -- NOT safety.
Generally speaking (and note the caveat), organic poisons don't
sit around and stay poisonous for long after they're applied.
But while they are active, they do what they are supposed to do.
Kill.

The only "organic" herbicide I know of is vinegar -- but it's not
the vinegar that you buy at your local supermarket, but a
concentrated -- and therefore more dangerous -- acid. There may
be others.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nor, does
"organic" mean "non-chemical."

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful

It has been posted here that gin is a good herbicide.

vince norris

On 16 Feb 2004 05:58:34 -0800,
(jackie) wrote:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful


I usually pull out weeds. Sometimes I'll use a propane torch on the
thorny ones. RoundUp on poison ivy.

I going to try a propane torch.

jackie wrote:
=

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful

-- =

Celestial Habitats by J. Kolenovsky
2003 Honorable Mention Award, Keep Houston Beautiful
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - business
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 05:58:34 -0800, jackie wrote:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using commercial
weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my kids and pets if
anyone can help id be very grateful


Organic method: pull 'em.

jackie wrote:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful




Safe magic bullet herbicides are non-existant. The safest way is to pull
them up. Alternatively, you could use a hoe. The hoe I like to use is
called a Coleman hoe or Collinear hoe. It's a very thin blade on a very
long handle. Instead of leaning over and chopping weeds, you stand
upright and sweep with the hoe, holding it like a broom, with your
thumbs pointing away from the blade. It takes a couple of tries to get
used to it, but it really saves your back.

Hoes work best when the weeds are very small (less than 1" high). This
means you have to keep at it. Fortunately, if you attack the weeds when
they're small, the job is much easier, so it takes little time. That
little time, applied often, works wonders. In fact, you should schedule
a couple of days a week to hoe your garden whether or not you see any
weeds. Frequently when you do that, you will see small white threads in
the soil you disturb. Those are weeds that haven't emerged yet, and you
just killed them.

There's a rule of thumb that seeds will only germinate if they are
buried less than seven times their maximum dimension. Most weed seeds
are fairly small, so if you don't disturb more than the top inch of soil
with your hoe, you won't bring up new weed seeds, and eventually the
weeds will stop coming up.

Dandelions are another matter. You don't usually see them until they are
fairly mature, at which time they have a long tap root. Your best bet is
to find a tool that pulls them up. That won't kill them since you rarely
get the whole root, but if you are persistent, you can tire them out. At
the very least, you should use the tool whenever you see a flower. As
soon as you see a dandelion flower, you have maybe 3-5 days before you
have dandelion seeds. If they get to that point, you have to start all
over again.

Personally, I like dandelions. They're mostly green and they
occasionally add a bit of nice color to a lawn. Ditto clover.

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 07:22:51 -0500, vincent p. norris
wrote:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful

It has been posted here that gin is a good herbicide.

vince norris

Don't get lulled into a false sense of security by words like
'organic' or 'natural' all "organic" means is it's carbon based, and
arsenic and nicotine are "natural" substances, doesn't make them any
less deadly.

Safest way to kill dandelions is the dandelion digger, good exercise,
you can work at it getting a few at a time, cutting them out with the
digger deeply enough, and they're gone. mow before they bloom in the
spring to give you more time, but they will counter by blooming as
close to the ground as possible, but the first mowing will give you a
few more days. But if you dig them, then scratch up the surface of
the soil where the broad leafed weeds had been and scatter a bit of
lawn grass seed there, water it in, and scatter a little dry grass or
straw lightly over it.. and water all of them keeping them moist and
when the grass fills in, you won't get so many dandelions as they
can't grow where there's enough grass to choke them out.

So, keep the lawn well seeded, and that won't give the dandelions a
place to grow. If you have problem areas, like shade, get grass seed
blended for it. And in areas where grass won't grow, then get
perennials which will grow there. Hostas, ferns .. there are even
ferns for dry shade. You just got to look around. Try to get out of
the loop of feeding a lawn with high nitrogen fertilizer to make it
grow lush.. because then you have to up the water or it'll burn out,
and then you'll have to pay someone to mow twice as often. It's not
good for the lawn, the environment as over fertilizing eventually ends
up in the water table or in rivers and ponds and makes for algae
blooms. It's cheaper not to fertilize and usually it's not needed,
just water deeply when you wanter, and then you can water less often,
and mow less often. If you NEED to fertilize, then fertilize for
healthy roots.

If you just can't stand the weeds, and you're not willing to hand
weed, then put some round up in a squirt bottle and carefully spray
each weed., then after the weed dies, rake up the soil, and reseed the
spots that die. Roundup kills everything, including lawn, so just be
careful and precise.

Of course you can dig it all out and plant vegetables, herbs, small
fruit, and flowers :-D That's what I did .. even the driveway! LOL I
didn't have room to grow even a fraction of what I wanted to grow, so
I just said grass is evil and out it came. Of course, then I had more
weeds, but there are new things like the fabric weed barriers, and you
can lay down several layers of newsprint you then wet and mulch over
that'll keep new weeds down. :-D

Good gardening!!

Janice

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 07:22:51 -0500, vincent p. norris
wrote:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful

It has been posted here that gin is a good herbicide.

vince norris

Don't get lulled into a false sense of security by words like
'organic' or 'natural' all "organic" means is it's carbon based, and
arsenic and nicotine are "natural" substances, doesn't make them any
less deadly.

Safest way to kill dandelions is the dandelion digger, good exercise,
you can work at it getting a few at a time, cutting them out with the
digger deeply enough, and they're gone. mow before they bloom in the
spring to give you more time, but they will counter by blooming as
close to the ground as possible, but the first mowing will give you a
few more days. But if you dig them, then scratch up the surface of
the soil where the broad leafed weeds had been and scatter a bit of
lawn grass seed there, water it in, and scatter a little dry grass or
straw lightly over it.. and water all of them keeping them moist and
when the grass fills in, you won't get so many dandelions as they
can't grow where there's enough grass to choke them out.

So, keep the lawn well seeded, and that won't give the dandelions a
place to grow. If you have problem areas, like shade, get grass seed
blended for it. And in areas where grass won't grow, then get
perennials which will grow there. Hostas, ferns .. there are even
ferns for dry shade. You just got to look around. Try to get out of
the loop of feeding a lawn with high nitrogen fertilizer to make it
grow lush.. because then you have to up the water or it'll burn out,
and then you'll have to pay someone to mow twice as often. It's not
good for the lawn, the environment as over fertilizing eventually ends
up in the water table or in rivers and ponds and makes for algae
blooms. It's cheaper not to fertilize and usually it's not needed,
just water deeply when you wanter, and then you can water less often,
and mow less often. If you NEED to fertilize, then fertilize for
healthy roots.

If you just can't stand the weeds, and you're not willing to hand
weed, then put some round up in a squirt bottle and carefully spray
each weed., then after the weed dies, rake up the soil, and reseed the
spots that die. Roundup kills everything, including lawn, so just be
careful and precise.

Of course you can dig it all out and plant vegetables, herbs, small
fruit, and flowers :-D That's what I did .. even the driveway! LOL I
didn't have room to grow even a fraction of what I wanted to grow, so
I just said grass is evil and out it came. Of course, then I had more
weeds, but there are new things like the fabric weed barriers, and you
can lay down several layers of newsprint you then wet and mulch over
that'll keep new weeds down. :-D

Good gardening!!

Janice

(jackie) wrote in
m:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful


aside from pulling them out as others have mentioned, I've heard that
cutting your grass often will encourage a deep and dense root structure
that helps crowd out dandelions and broadleaf weeds. I pull, but don't mow
often, because i don't like to run the gasoline powered lawm mower. Maybe
if break down and get a push reel mower this spring ....

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 09:11:55 -0500, Dwight Sipler
wrote:

jackie wrote:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful




Safe magic bullet herbicides are non-existant. The safest way is to pull
them up. Alternatively, you could use a hoe. The hoe I like to use is
called a Coleman hoe or Collinear hoe. It's a very thin blade on a very
long handle. Instead of leaning over and chopping weeds, you stand
upright and sweep with the hoe, holding it like a broom, with your
thumbs pointing away from the blade. It takes a couple of tries to get
used to it, but it really saves your back.

Hoes work best when the weeds are very small (less than 1" high). This
means you have to keep at it. Fortunately, if you attack the weeds when
they're small, the job is much easier, so it takes little time. That
little time, applied often, works wonders. In fact, you should schedule
a couple of days a week to hoe your garden whether or not you see any
weeds. Frequently when you do that, you will see small white threads in
the soil you disturb. Those are weeds that haven't emerged yet, and you
just killed them.

There's a rule of thumb that seeds will only germinate if they are
buried less than seven times their maximum dimension. Most weed seeds
are fairly small, so if you don't disturb more than the top inch of soil
with your hoe, you won't bring up new weed seeds, and eventually the
weeds will stop coming up.

Dandelions are another matter. You don't usually see them until they are
fairly mature, at which time they have a long tap root. Your best bet is
to find a tool that pulls them up. That won't kill them since you rarely
get the whole root, but if you are persistent, you can tire them out. At
the very least, you should use the tool whenever you see a flower. As
soon as you see a dandelion flower, you have maybe 3-5 days before you
have dandelion seeds. If they get to that point, you have to start all
over again.

Personally, I like dandelions. They're mostly green and they
occasionally add a bit of nice color to a lawn. Ditto clover.

ayup.. and if you can't beat 'em...blanche 'em and eat 'em ;-)
I couldn't believe it when I saw dandelion seed for sale for salad
greens! LOL

Janice

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 09:11:55 -0500, Dwight Sipler
wrote:

jackie wrote:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful




Safe magic bullet herbicides are non-existant. The safest way is to pull
them up. Alternatively, you could use a hoe. The hoe I like to use is
called a Coleman hoe or Collinear hoe. It's a very thin blade on a very
long handle. Instead of leaning over and chopping weeds, you stand
upright and sweep with the hoe, holding it like a broom, with your
thumbs pointing away from the blade. It takes a couple of tries to get
used to it, but it really saves your back.

Hoes work best when the weeds are very small (less than 1" high). This
means you have to keep at it. Fortunately, if you attack the weeds when
they're small, the job is much easier, so it takes little time. That
little time, applied often, works wonders. In fact, you should schedule
a couple of days a week to hoe your garden whether or not you see any
weeds. Frequently when you do that, you will see small white threads in
the soil you disturb. Those are weeds that haven't emerged yet, and you
just killed them.

There's a rule of thumb that seeds will only germinate if they are
buried less than seven times their maximum dimension. Most weed seeds
are fairly small, so if you don't disturb more than the top inch of soil
with your hoe, you won't bring up new weed seeds, and eventually the
weeds will stop coming up.

Dandelions are another matter. You don't usually see them until they are
fairly mature, at which time they have a long tap root. Your best bet is
to find a tool that pulls them up. That won't kill them since you rarely
get the whole root, but if you are persistent, you can tire them out. At
the very least, you should use the tool whenever you see a flower. As
soon as you see a dandelion flower, you have maybe 3-5 days before you
have dandelion seeds. If they get to that point, you have to start all
over again.

Personally, I like dandelions. They're mostly green and they
occasionally add a bit of nice color to a lawn. Ditto clover.

ayup.. and if you can't beat 'em...blanche 'em and eat 'em ;-)
I couldn't believe it when I saw dandelion seed for sale for salad
greens! LOL

Janice

escapee wrote in
:

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 05:50:23 GMT, Salty Thumb
opined:

(jackie) wrote in
. com:

how do i get rid of garden weeds and dandilions without using
commercial weedkillers as id rather use organic as its safer for my
kids and pets if anyone can help id be very grateful


aside from pulling them out as others have mentioned, I've heard that
cutting your grass often will encourage a deep and dense root
structure that helps crowd out dandelions and broadleaf weeds. I
pull, but don't mow often, because i don't like to run the gasoline
powered lawm mower. Maybe if break down and get a push reel mower
this spring ....

We bought a Black and Decker electric mower and it is the best thing
we did. One charge easily does our entire turf, and we have thick St.
Augustine. Our turf covers approximately...1500 sq. ft.


The cordless model does look intriguing, but I think I will have go with
getting the extra exercise and take my chances with neighborhood kids
laughing at me.