Weeds in Driveway

john_doe.

Hi looking for advice.
Have a number of weeds growing through gravel driveway.

Looking for best way to get rid of them.
Have seen suggestion from herbicide spray, blow torch and boiling water

Water would be slow as it's quite a large driveway.
Not too keen on herbicide/ pesrticide but maybe it's the only way that works .

Some photos attached

elperello

If you are going for a blow torch get the one that connects to a standard Kosangas cylinder.

hawkelady

Spray with roundup when they start growing again , march/April. Easiest and quickest way. Job done!!

magicbastarder

i've been wondering what long term damage could ensue from just using ordinary bleach for this sort of job. i assume it's reactive enough that nothing persists in the environment, but wiser heads may know better.

looksee

If you have a reasonable depth of gravel you could just rake them to get their roots up then gather them up. They will come back, but they will come back whatever you do. I wouldn't waste time with a blow torch. Weedkiller is the best bet, but still rake them up when they are dead or you will be contributing to the mulch that they are growing on.

s7ryf3925pivug

Powerwasher worked for me. Also removed the soil and made it no longer slippery when wet.

I don't trust Roundup. Thought it was going to be banned.

john_doe.

Kendall Round Threshold wrote: »

Powerwasher worked for me. Also removed the soil and made it no longer slippery when wet.

I don't trust Roundup. Thought it was going to be banned.

Thanks for all suggestions , ya Roundup I'd like to avoid remember the stuff from a few years back and thought it was fairly toxic.

Is there any good alternatives to roundup ?
Like the idea of the blow torch but would take an age.

Lumen

Agree with mechanical removal. Rake for me although power washer sounds interesting.

john_doe.

Lumen wrote: »

Agree with mechanical removal. Rake for me although power washer sounds interesting.

Thanks ya , the size of the drive would prob be soul destroying to mechanically remove them , that's why I was thinking blwo torch but as it happens I'm just purchased a power washer so might give that a spin

Lumen

john_doe. wrote: »

Thanks ya , the size of the drive would prob be soul destroying to mechanically remove them , that's why I was thinking blwo torch but as it happens I'm just purchased a power washer so might give that a spin

How big is it? I've got about 300sqm and it doesn't take very long. I have more problems keeping it level than dealing with weeds.

Samuel T. Cogley

Power-washer and gravel... interesting :pac:

Let us know how that goes!

(I don't recommend it, if my windows are anything to go by after spraying down a cobble lock drive)

john_doe.

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Power-washer and gravel... interesting :pac:

Let us know how that goes!

(I don't recommend it, if my windows are anything to go by after spraying down a cobble lock drive)

Ya gave it a quick spin , other than soaking the ground and spitting chips everywhere I don't think it's that effective. Is there any alternatives to roundup that ain't as toxic?

pablo128

john_doe. wrote: »

Ya gave it a quick spin , other than soaking the ground and spitting chips everywhere I don't think it's that effective. Is there any alternatives to roundup that ain't as toxic?

Isn't being toxic the whole purpose of Roundup?

john_doe.

that is true, to be fair it is very effective.
its health effectives are bit debatable depending what you read

s7ryf3925pivug

Oh worked well for me but driveway is tarmac

blackbox

Of the available herbicides, Roundup is probably the least toxic.

Atlantic Dawn

I've used boiling hot water on weeds on concrete before, kills them off. I'd be concerned though with tarmac that it might cause damage by softening up the mix, might not though?

Boater123

Every Summer a guy buys from me a bag of proper de icing salt. He says he uses it for weeds on a gravel driveway.

He says he uses the rock salt as opposed to the white water softener salt because it can pool near the kerbing and white salt is more corrosive to concrete, and because it takes longer to break down.

I've never used it though, guess it works for him as he's been coming in year after year

macraignil

john_doe. wrote: »

Hi looking for advice.
Have a number of weeds growing through gravel driveway.

Looking for best way to get rid of them.
Have seen suggestion from herbicide spray, blow torch and boiling water

Water would be slow as it's quite a large driveway.
Not too keen on herbicide/ pesrticide but maybe it's the only way that works .

Some photos attached

The picture attached looks like you have grass tufts getting established in the gravel so from my experience even Roundup will only set the weeds back for a couple of months and then they will start to regrow again. Flaming them will kill off the top growth as well but to give a more long term control of the weed growth it is more effective to remove the weeds roots and all.

I do this with a trowel to loosen the gravel while pulling out each grass tuft and normally leave the dug out tuft of grass and gravel upside down to let the grass die in order to avoid loosing too much gravel. Some weeds that come out without too much gravel can be thrown to one side of the driveway to avoid renewing the organic material in the drive but the process does take time so it's best to do it in stages. It looks like your gravel is good and not contaminated with soil so if you can complete this process once I'd expect you would not need to repeat it for some time. My driveway is not of the same quality and I need to cover the area about once a year to keep it looking reasonably neat.

john_doe.

macraignil wrote: »

The picture attached looks like you have grass tufts getting established in the gravel so from my experience even Roundup will only set the weeds back for a couple of months and then they will start to regrow again. Flaming them will kill off the top growth as well but to give a more long term control of the weed growth it is more effective to remove the weeds roots and all.

I do this with a trowel to loosen the gravel while pulling out each grass tuft and normally leave the dug out tuft of grass and gravel upside down to let the grass die in order to avoid loosing too much gravel. Some weeds that come out without too much gravel can be thrown to one side of the driveway to avoid renewing the organic material in the drive but the process does take time so it's best to do it in stages. It looks like your gravel is good and not contaminated with soil so if you can complete this process once I'd expect you would not need to repeat it for some time. My driveway is not of the same quality and I need to cover the area about once a year to keep it looking reasonably neat.

Thanks very much for the detailed reply

justforgroups

Hi,
Anyone know where I can buy a couple kilo of 'table' salt around Dublin/Leinster (like this one from Amazon) please?

I'm going to salt my driveway which is cobble-lock (similar to this)

Rock salt granules are too big to fall between the bricks. I want to salt the f*** out of it this year as I'm sick of weeds, moss, and grass and such growing up! :-)

Thanks
jfg

Wishbone Ash

pablo128 wrote: »

Isn't being toxic the whole purpose of Roundup?

It's not near as effective as it used to be. 20 years ago it would kill almost anything but it has been reduced to a mediocre weedkiller now.

Samuel T. Cogley

justforgroups wrote: »

Hi,
Anyone know where I can buy a couple kilo of 'table' salt around Dublin/Leinster (like this one from Amazon) please?

I'm going to salt my driveway which is cobble-lock (similar to this)

Rock salt granules are too big to fall between the bricks. I want to salt the f*** out of it this year as I'm sick of weeds, moss, and grass and such growing up! :-)

Thanks
jfg

What do you do just sweep the salt in? do you water it or anything. I'll be ordering to a NI address so will buy the linked product, not sure where you'd get it in Dublin sorry - are you Northside by chance?

john_doe.

Boater123 wrote: »

Every Summer a guy buys from me a bag of proper de icing salt. He says he uses it for weeds on a gravel driveway.

He says he uses the rock salt as opposed to the white water softener salt because it can pool near the kerbing and white salt is more corrosive to concrete, and because it takes longer to break down.

I've never used it though, guess it works for him as he's been coming in year after year

I might try the salt , had go with blow torch I got in aldi waste of time. Pulling up the weeds takes too many chips with it