Weeds! - how to get rid of them???

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Marbil

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We have patio stones out back and weeds grow in between each stone - seriously driving me nuts! Have done the pathclear thing and have even tried bleach but the effers grow back! can anyone recommend a decent weedkiller that will work?
 
Marbil said:
We have patio stones out back and weeds grow in between each stone - seriously driving me nuts! Have done the pathclear thing and have even tried bleach but the effers grow back! can anyone recommend a decent weedkiller that will work?
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Use RoundUp weed killer but keep it away from any plants or shrubs you want to keep as this stuff will kill the lot! It should keep the weeds away for about three months if used correctly. I use it myself on my patio and it does the job.

http://www.roundup.com/

Good Luck ;)
 
Have you tried boiling water from your kettle ... it might take a few goes but it will kill the weeds completely ... and it's safer than weedkiller.
 
The Pathclear does work, but you have to repeat it every 3 months whether you can see the weeds or not.
 
thanks for the replies everyone - the boiling water could take a long time though!! I'll try the salt first and see what happens - just dry salt I take it?
 
I used roundup on my paving in April and haven't seen a weed appear since. It kills what it lands on so spray on a calm evening and wear the proper gear.
 
Yeah - just Saxa or whatever table salt. Just pour a bit to cover each weed, leave it there and it should kill them off. Like most of the other solutions this may not be a once off solution and you may need to do it again from time to time.
 
How about those weed burners - it's like a mini hand held flame thrower and the heat destroys the weeds, or whatever it is aimed at. Very envirobnmentaly friendly, but I've no idea how effective they are!

Has anyone used these? Was thinking of buying one from garden shop but notice Aldi have them in stock at 1/4 the price.
 
They were selling one of those gas powered weed burners in Lidl recently so perhaps they are still in stock?
 
there will always be weeds! you can't beat nature!

my advice would be use an environmentally proper method at the beginning of summer, and perhaps again halfway through and forget about it the rest of the time.
 
PGD1 said:
my advice would be use an environmentally proper method at the beginning of summer, and perhaps again halfway through and forget about it the rest of the time.
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There's no way that would work in my garden. My sweetpeas would be choked with bindweed in a couple of weeks if I didn't keep on top of it.

I don't really mind weeding though. I do need to learn which weeds should be hoe'd and which have to be pulled up. I pull everything up (not a weedkiller fan) but know I'm wasting my time with some of them. I think it's an annual/perrenial thing but have yet to figure out which are which.

Can anyone recommend a good general gardening book that is engaging? There are so many that I don't know what to choose and some of them are really really boring or aimed at horticultural professors with the level of detail they go into.

Rebecca
 
In the long term,you should think about "pointing" between the slabs,I did it when I laid my patio and have never seen a weed!. Be careful when pointing (a mix of sand and cement,about 4-1) that you don't get the mortar on the slabs as the marks are difficult to remove,trust me,its the best and only way to keep those weeds away
 
I'm not trying to be a smart This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language here but whether or not you can treat weeds on paving in an environmentally friendly way depends on the size of the area you're talking about surely. I have over 700 square yards of paving in total and bar a water / roundup mix in a knapsack how else do I realistically treat the weeds? I'm genuinely asking and not trying to get up anyones nose here - roundup ain't cheap, I'd be happy to use a realistic alternative.
 
I think that most "environmentally responsible" gardeners accept that controlled and selected use of weedkillers such as "Roundup", especially near paved/ uncultivated areas is an acceptable solution to the problem of maintenance of such areas. In the ideal world every weed would be pulled by hand, composted etc. I treat paving, edges of beds etc with a weedkiller every 3 months and have no qualms about it, it cuts down on maintenance, I only use the minimum amount of chemical required and it gives me time to focus on other things. Over time even the best pointing between slabs will break down, weeds will grow anyway, in the smallest hairline crack so weedkiller is the only option. As for salt, it's not good for concrete in the longterm.
 
Carpenter said:
As for salt, it's not good for concrete in the longterm.
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I didn't realise that. The salt approach works well for small numbers of weeds in a lawn. I assumed that it would be OK for paved areas too but maybe not.
 
the problem with weedkillers is that it kills the bugs and also poisens the birds... so you are not just killing the weeds.

I have a cobble style brick patio. I power wash it, including between the gaps. This usually gets rid of dirt/soil in the gaps and removes ALL weeds (including some of their roots). After a few weeks the strong weeds come back up and I can target them individually. At the moment I am about to try to blast them with the gas flame killer. Then I will resand it.

I don't care if it takes me time and effort... what else am I going to do... watch television????



As for weeds in the veggie garden.... just use a hoe or leave them until they are bigger and pull them up. A few weeds here and there isn't going to hurt anything. It doesn't have to look like the pictures in a gardening magazine!
 
PGD1 said:
the problem with weedkillers is that it kills the bugs and also poisens the birds... so you are not just killing the weeds.
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Roundup is a growth hormone for plants, which forces plants to grow faster than their capacity to feed themselves. I don't think it's harmful to animals.
I can't imagine that chucking salt or soapy water or bleach about is good for the soil, surely these leave longterm residues. Apart from weeding, what IS environmentally friendly?
 
Gordanus said:
I can't imagine that chucking salt or soapy water or bleach about is good for the soil, surely these leave longterm residues.
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Jaysus - I'm not talking using a dumpster truck to fill the garden with salt - just a little sprinkle from a table salt container on individual weeds! It has worked for me any others in my family with no obvious long term effects on the soil or the environment. As for (washing up liquid) soapy water, I regularly use this to get rid of greenfly and again have not noticed any long term problems. Roundup does contain harmful chemicals by the way.
 
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