The growth of weeds is inevitable especially during the rainy season. In fertile lands, the weeds are so pervasive that manual removal is a costly and labour intensive affair. Its therefore economical to use chemical or organic sprays. They cover large areas and kill the weeds at minimum expense.
I used to work alongide a grounds crew when I was young and the guy there always made his own weed spray, and I am sure saved a bunch of money from using the bottled stuff. Not sure what it was, but I would love to find out.
I am a backyard farmer and I am conscious of the environment not exactly for the environment in general for but primarily for my health. I have stopped using chemicals and I am now finding ways to make homemade concoctions against pests. But with the weeds, I have to admit that I have no experience with weed killers. I exert effort in pulling out the weeds from my garden. You are right in saying that manually eradicating the weeds need a lot of effort. Sometimes I hire a person to do the weeding particularly when I had not time to spare. It takes one whole day to clean up my garden of weeds.
One of the best ways to prevent weed is to cover the soil that surrounds your plants with woodchips. not only the wood chips serves as fertilizers it stops weeds from growing. I prefer making the weeds grow though because some of them are edible and can be used as feed for my meat rabbits.
When I moved into my current house the back garden was covered in weeds that were six feet high. It was like a jungle out there. I found a brilliant weed killer. After chopping down the weeds with a scythe I sprayed them with this weed killer that I had bought. It is a biodegradable weed killer and it is working to get rid of them. All the weeds are just disintegrating into the ground. Apparently, this weed killer doesn't harm the earth.
I don't use any spray, in fact, I am using something natural like coffee, Someone told me that using coffee on the soil will make the insects, snails, to disappear and the weeds not grow. A friend put salt on the soil for the weeds not grow and now he is not having any flower or vegetable there, the salt killed all was green in its soil, so, never use salt!
My auncle has worked in gardening several years now and has always used chemicals to get rid of weeds. During this time he got sick for inhaling the chemical too much so he then searched for ways to get rid of weeds with natural everyday things. It's a lot cheaper since he's no longer sick and well anything made usually costs less than store bought.
I have no experience of it but I have read some about organic farming and most of these farmers use mulching as an effective method of minimizing growth of weeds. They just pull out the weeds from time to time and instead of getting rid of them, the weeds are strewn all over the garden so as to cover the soil entirely. That way, the weeds in their young stages are smothered due to lack of air and no space. The spread weeds also get decayed in due course of time and form a rich humus that is good for plants. An effective method, admittedly slow but it does negate use of chemical sprays.
I would not spray the weeds with chemicals though, like using Roudup or any other of these chemicals, because it can work its way into your fruits and vegetables and also it can be washed into the ground water as well. If its a garden you could just till the the ground and make sure the weeds are covered up quite deeply-so the seeds cannot grow or germinate. Also remember you could hoe the area if its a small patch or try mulching the weed areas, is another choice.
The use of chemicals in agriculture has increased to a dangerous level and if you have the choice, better to do it naturally..
