Get rid of weeds growing through your patio for good with free and easy gardening hack

Weeds sprouting through your patio or driveway can be quite unsightly, but before reaching for chemical treatments, there's an eco-friendly trick you can try.

In a Reddit thread filled with gardening enthusiasts sharing advice, one clever gardener revealed their preferred weed killer: simple boiling water.

They recommended to fellow gardeners: "Don't use toxic [substances] to kill your weeds. Just use boiling water. It works better and instantly kills the weeds."

The user explained: “You can't use it in the middle of your lawn, but along your walkway, in cracks, your driveway, or wherever you want to kill vegetation."

Although it might seem like a whimsical idea, the excitement among gardening aficionados indicates that this boiling water technique is truly effective.

Experts at Gardening Know How affirm this, noting that boiling water “scalds" the weeds so intensely that they cannot grow back.

Nonetheless, as with any herbicide, whether natural or synthetic, accuracy is essential to prevent damage to your treasured plants.

This boiling water approach is perfect for solid surfaces like patios and driveways, where you can apply it with precise control.

Meanwhile, gardeners have been urged to take extreme care if they’re using vinegar as a weedkiller in their garden this summer.

One big advantage of vinegar, apart from being cheap and readily available in your kitchen, is that it’s less toxic to the environment than traditional chemicals, and better for insects and wildlife too.

Protecting bees and other pollinating insects is vital, as experts have seen stark declines in populations by as much as 80 percent - and if they die off, we can't grow food any more.

However, gardeners are being warned that vinegar can still be harmful to bees, which are a vital pollinator we’re all trying to protect by avoiding lawn cutting and sewing wild flowers.

As one expert explains: “Vinegar is an astringent. If applied topically in a strong enough solution, it will dissolve the coating on the hairs of the trachea and the bees will drown”

Another expert added: “Vinegar, particularly household vinegar with a concentration of around five percent, is often used as a natural and environmentally friendly weed killer.

“When vinegar is sprayed directly on weeds, it can also affect surrounding plants and flowers, potentially harming beneficial insects like honey bees that rely on these plants for food and habitat. Additionally, the acidity of vinegar can disrupt the pH balance of the soil, affecting the ecosystem in which bees and other insects live.”