Question
Hi,

Thanks for the detailed response. And yes I never want anything to grow back again...never. So how do I use the salt. Do I mix it with water and then pour over the grass. Do I boil water and add salt. What is the best technique...

Thnks
Rob
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Followup To

Question -
Hi Long Island,

Can you tell me the fastest, cheapest way to kill all the grass and weeds in my backyard. I live in a small townhouse and only have a small backyard. Most of the lawn is made up of evil weeds and weird grasses. I want to kill them all and never have anything grow back again. Before I deck the whole lot. I'm from Sydney, Aust. I've used "Roundup" which is a spray and that worked a little. But I want a cheap and nasty way of doing it. Some say salt water. How about petrol or methylated spirits. I don't want anything living after it...never. Any suggestions

Thnks
Rob

Answer -
Rob, it is my pleasure to tell you that since you want to do this cheap, you have to do it without any chemicals.

Roundup is expensive.  You should avoid those BAD American companies.  There is nothing, absolutely NOTHING good about Roundup.  But there is LOTS that is bad.  And... it's not the cheapest way to do it.  Plus, as you have learned, it is not effective.  And you want permanent, right?

I just want to make sure I get this right - permanent, and nothing?

Because sometimes people say things they don't exactly mean literally.  And there is this minor but potentially major language barrier - you say potahto, I say potayto.  Your bonnet is my hood of the car.  So we are talking "permanent" as in "forever"?  "never" as in "'til hell freezes over"?

Petrol?  Methylated spirits?  I'm not sure this will be good for the planet.  I know you are on the other side of this, but still...

we can be ethical about it, a win-win-win solution.  Which is even bigger "win" for you if you change your mind.  Like making a rescindable pact with the devil.

When you say "deck the whole lot" are you talking about building a deck over part of your property, or is this some foreign Australian idiom for something else?  Please confirm: You are building a deck.

So, to solve this problem in a way that will not damage God's earth, we can go to ancient times.

Check the Wikipedia description of "salting the earth" (www.answers.com/topic/salting-the-earth?hl=scorched&hl=earth&hl=policy) which tells us this refers to and I quote "the practice of spreading salt on fields to make them incapable of being used for crop-growing. This was done in ancient times at the end of some wars as an extremely punitive scorched earth tactic."

Wikipedia also reminds us: "The Red Army also salted Soviet fields as a part of the scorched earth policy against the Nazi invasion. It was reported that when the Soviets reclaimed the territory, they were equally unable to use it."

Salt will solve your problem here, sir.

Salt (Sodium Chloride) reaches toxic levels dissolved in water.  Sodium ions displace Phosphorus and Potassium in your garden.  Plant roots take up Chloride ions and ship them around to all the leaves; there, they interrupt the manufacture of Chlorophyll, the roots suffer from severe dehydration, and it's Goodbye and Good Luck.

Acid loving plants are especially sensitive to salt and are the first to kick the bucket - that's Brooklyn English for "die".

Oddly, Wikipedia has another bit of information directly related to your Oz coordinates: "In some areas (for example in Australia), salinity is an inherent situation (enormous amounts of salts are stored in the soils). However, human practices have increased soil salinity by changing the natural balance of the water cycle, by allowing excess recharging of groundwater and accumulation through concentration."  Bummer!

Salt is not COMPLETELY permanent.  However, if you are indeed decking over the soil, and preventing any use of it at all, you can count on the decking wood or concrete to make the damage as permanent at least as civilization.

Some weeds are known to grow through concrete.  But we can cross that bridge when and if we come to it.  Any questions?

Answer
This is quite simply the easiest thing you have ever done.

Get yourself a few containers of salt - a bucket perhaps, depending on the amount of dirt you have there.  Here in New York, we get large amounts of salt that would not be fit for human consumption but is quite effective for melting snow and ice.  The side effect that we all wish to avoid is that disintegration of the concrete sidewalk, and the damage to adjacent vegetation.  Simply splashing the melted snow and ice on the grass next to the sidewalk ruins the soil and kills grass all summer long.  Which is why I have stopped doing that.

If you read last summer's questions, however, you'll see several people were wondering why their grass was dieing for no reason.  The first thing I always ask is, Is it dieing next to the driveway, the sidwalk, or the road?  Di you use salt to melt the snow last winter?

Let's get back to you.

If you were a barbarian, sacking Rome on horseback, you would ride over the field and pour straight sodium chloride - or another sodium - on the ground.  Then watch what happens.

Very little can survive that scorched earth.  You don't need to water it in, you don't need to boil anything.

And if you wait until, say, your 100th Birthday, Rob, and go back there, you will see homeowners scratching their heads wondering why everything dies there.  This will last forever.  Or, rather, more than a lifetime.  Sort of like the half life of a nuclear holocaust.

You don't have to go crazy with the salt.  A regular sprinkling, like you were salting pretzels, should do it.

And no one will get any weird diseases because of it.  That's one of the surprises in store for people who use RoundUp.  They won't be selling that stuff in 25 years.  The lawsuits will be too expensive.

Now, Rob, if you would please give me a bunch of "10"s in the feedback column, I would be pleased as punch!

Oh  - Save a little salt for the Margaritas when you're done.

In your case, however, that would be a good thing.