I Tried Using Vinegar as a Weed Killer and It Cut My Weeding Time in Half

Even if you’re not an avid gardener, you know that weeds are an inevitable part of any outdoor space. They invade your lawn, your garden beds, and will even find the tiniest cracks between your pavers or on your driveway to take up residence.

I will admit, I don’t mind weeds in certain situations—I don’t think it’s a great use of my time (or realistic) to obsess over keeping my garden completely weed-free.

But there are some areas where I think they take away from the overall appearance of my space, and one of those places is in the flagstone walkway at the front of my house.

Dandelions, especially, seem to gravitate to this part of my front yard, and sometimes it feels like it goes from having no weeds one day to being completely overrun the next.

They’re also harder to pull out of the ground when they’re wedged between flagstones, so I decided I’d try a trick I’d been seeing all over the internet, and I wasn’t disappointed.

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How I Used Vinegar to Kill Weeds

I loved this weed-killing method because I didn’t have to go out and buy any expensive tools or materials—all you need is vinegar and a refillable spray bottle. You can add some water and dish soap to the mixture if you like.

I combined my ingredients into my spray bottle (if you have a larger area, you could also use a garden sprayer), and got to work on the dandelions on my walkway.

I was pretty liberal with my application, making sure to coat as much of the weeds that were visible as possible.

And I was honestly shocked by how quickly it worked. I assumed I’d need to wait until the next day to see the results, but just a couple of hours later I went back outside and the weeds were showing visible signs of dying.

I left it for a few hours more, and all of the weeds I had sprayed were completely dead. They came out of the ground so easily, and cut my weeding time in half.

In just a few minutes, I had a weed-free flagstone walkway again.

When Not to Use Vinegar on Weeds

Using vinegar as a weed killer is not the best solution for every situation. The vinegar spray I used killed everything it touched (even some moss I would have been happy to leave as-is).

If you have a garden bed, hand-pulling or using a weeding tool might be a better solution, so you don’t risk killing any plants you actually like.

You would also want to avoid using it on your grass, since it’s going to kill the surrounding grass as well, leaving you with a patchy lawn—which is even worse than a lawn with a couple of weeds in it.

But using vinegar as a weed killer on walkways, patios, and driveways is an ideal solution. It won’t damage the stones or concrete, and it’s easier to use than attempting to hand-pull the weeds—it can be really hard to get to the roots that are jammed into the tiny crevices.

It’s quick, simple, inexpensive, and will give you your weekends back.