A GARDENING fan has shared a cheap tip for banishing weeds from your patio.
Jodie Oates shared her tip via a video posted to her TikTok channel, which she often uses to share garden inspiration.
“This is the best garden hack you’re going to find all year”, she said.
Jodie explained that instead of “wasting money” on expensive weed killer, all you need are three simple ingredients.
First, take an old spray bottle and then make a mixture of cheap washing up liquid, salt and white vinegar.
Put the ingredients into the spray bottle, and spray it on the patio.
Demonstrating that the hack works, Jodie showed viewers her patio, which she said she sprayed with her concoction last year.
The patio was completely weed free.
“I’ll never, ever buy weed killer again”.
Jodie warned not to put the mixture anywhere near any plants that you actually want to keep, as the mixture will kill those as well.
The gardening fan then headed over to her vegetable patch, and sprayed the mixture on some weeds that were poking through.
Salt is a great natural alternative to toxic weed killer.
It works by increasing the levels on ions in the soil and increasing osmotic pressure, which means the weeds will be unable to absorb water and will dry out.
White vinegar works in a similar way, as the acidity of it breaks down cell walls and removes moisture from weeds.
Washing up liquid does not work on its own to kill weeds but improves the effectiveness of the formula by holding the salt and the vinegar on the weeds.
All three of these ingredients are super cheap, so you should be able to make the mixture for around £1.
Jodie’s video has likely left many people impressed, as it has racked up over 916,000 views on the video sharing platform.
The Sun's Gardening Editor, Veronica Lorraine, has shared the tasks you need to crack on with in May.
GARDEN growth can go from nought to ninety in May, depending on the weather. The last UK frosts are generally seen at the beginning of the month, so all of a sudden there’s so much more to do and grow.
Plant out dahlia tubers
It’s a joy to finally plant out your dahlia tubers. Remember how big they can get – and space accordingly – anything up to half a metre apart.
It’s a good idea to put your support stakes in now instead of trying to work around them.
And make sure you include lots of well rotted manure or decent compost to feed it and then mulch to keep it moist and suppress weeds. They generally start blooming in July.
Final feed to Spring flowers
You can give a cheeky feed to all your remaining tulips and daffodils.
Although the majority of bulbs aren’t guaranteed to come back year after year any more, as long as you’ve left them to die back naturally there’s a good chance they’ll have stored enough energy to come back again. Tomato feed is fine.
Tie up climbers
Your clematis, honeysuckle and rambling roses should be well on their way by now – try to use plastic free string to tie them back into their support, or tuck them round each other to make sure they don’t sprout off in crazy directions.
Feed the lawn
It’s not too late to give your lawn a good feed.
Whether you use granular or liquid, it can give it a good boost to see it through the harsher summer months.
While mowing, don’t go too low with your cut length yet and never take more than a third off the grass height.
Get creative
It’s also time to get creative with hanging baskets and pots.
Trailing pelargoniums, which a lot of people call geraniums, and Begonias are a good, low cost way of getting lovely returning blooms throughout the summer in your baskets.
And pots can be planted with spring bulbs.
Don’t forget the greenhouse!
Give your greenhouse a good tidy and clean the glass inside and out.
The improved light will help plants grow quicker inside and tidying is good for the soul.
You can just use a household white wine vinegar and water solution – or even neat if you’re feeling spendy – which gives a really good shine.
TikTok users raced to the video’s comments section, to share their thoughts on the hack.
One person said: “I’m a gardener and I make this in barrel loads”.
A second person said: “So glad I’ve seen this as my garden’s got loads of weeds”.
A third person said: “I can also confirm that this works.”
A fourth said: “100% trying this!”
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