It’s that time of year when gardeners do battle with weeds popping up all over the place in the hot weather.

As well as ripping them from lawns, weeds also pop up all over patios, driveways and even in the cracks along the foundations of your house.

Go to any garden centre or DIY store and you’ll find all sorts of flashy and brightly coloured (and expensive) solutions to garden weeds, with everything from root control to 24 hour killers to non-glysophate, the lattermost of which is supposed to be safer for bees.

How to kill weeds without weedkiller or chemicals

And garden experts are always sharing special ways to get rid of weeds with homemade solutions: white vinegar and salt solutions being the most common.

But even white vinegar costs money and it’s not great for the environment - it will kill any bee which touches it.

At a time when insect numbers are down by as much as 80 percent, it’s worth considering less damaging alternatives - and one is totally free and only needs one common household appliance.

One way to kill weeds is to pour boiling water over them. Simply boil a kettle of water - which costs a few pence at most - and pour the water over every weed in your driveway.

As Unique Paving Materials says: “Another way to kill weeds is by merely pouring boiling water over them. This is a simple solution and is perfect to try out if you don’t have any materials on hand. 

“Since boiling water can reach the taproot, you’re able to get rid of weeds permanently, and with it being a nontoxic method, there won’t be any long-term negative effects on the surrounding vegetation.”

So it’s cheap, easy, and doesn’t harm anything other than the weed, and provides a permanent way to kill a weed - time to stick the kettle on.