Our house is on the rear lot with a long 60m driveway and therefore have got a lot of paved area.
We have had a wild weed growth around the driveway this season with weeds poping out of between the pavers as well as to both sides of the driveway. We have tried pathweeder chemical from Bunnings but with not much luck in controlling the growth.
Could anyone pls share their experiences about controlling the weed growth in the driveways.
1 cup of salt with 1 litre of vinegar is what I use and it leaves no residue. As long as you use white vinegar.
where possible squirt directly at roots or for bindis and clover mist. Works great
Do it in the morning of a hot day. The vinegar burns the leaf quickly the salt kills the roots.
I put rock salt around where I want no plant to grow e.g alone fence line.
If this was not done when pavers were installed, make up a fine dry sand mix with some cement powder in it.
Spread this over the pavers and brush into the cracks with broom.
Remove remainder.
Then hose with fine spray to dampen the pavers and so set the sand-cement mix.
This will set in the cracks and prevent any further growth.
Other than that, any weedkiller (Roundup) will do the trick, but has to be repeated when eventually the weeds come back.
Salt brushed into the cracks will also help.
Boiling water or a good blast of steam will kill the weeds cheaply but its the regrowth that is your problem really and it won't stop that.
So long as there's a medium to grow in then they'll keep coming back.
Salt will have residual weed-killing properties but I like goers' suggestion of cementing all the cracks better to keep the weeds out.
something with glyphosate in it (eg, roundup etc). spray the pavers. you might need to repeat to break the reproduction cycle (there will be seeds around)
Where is the weed growing?
The "pathweeder chemical from Bunnings" is not glyphosulphate from memory (or it's only 100g/L which is weak). You really need to get glyphosulphate 360g/L which is strong enough to kill weeds right to the roots. Roundup is 360g/L but there are other no name brands at Bunnings of 360g/L which are less than half the price - get these.
Also, blaircam's suggestion of brushing cement mix between the cracks and wetting will be successful until the cement cracks and the weeds come back.
I guess ultimately a combination of both the above and repeating this process every year will keep weeds away for good.
In this case, roundup is not going to do the job any better than vinegar, and will in fact be slower, so why expose yourself (and pets or children who might choose to walk on it barefoot) to potential nasties if you don't have to?
Couldn't agree with you more. We need to stop relying on those chemicals as we have perfectly good solutions for most things without introducing excess and potentially dangerous chemicals.
the car that is driving down the drive way is going to do more environmental harm than the weed killer
glyphosate is a safe and effective weed killer if used according to the instructions
From a pure financial perspective, glyphosulphate is cheaper than vinegar. Vinegar is $0.54/L ($1.08 for 2 litres) and glyphosulphate is $0.04/L (glypho 360 concentrate in Bunnings is $8.99 for 1L which makes 200L)
When I spray my weeds I use a full 8L sprayer bottle so each time it costs me $0.36 with glypho rather than $4.32 with vinegar
I'm just curious
roll it up in some paper, why are you complaining?
You might also be using too much weedkiller. I've probably got the technicalities wrong here, bit the idea seems plausible. I had this suggested to me by a turf supplier;
When chemically treating for weeds, you're better off under-dosing rather than over-dosing. Over-dosing will shock the weeds and they cut off the infected leaves (oh crap, we're under attack, sorry john, I'm sacrificing you mate) in an effort to preserve the queen (the roots). Once the leaves die off, the roots thrive again. This could be complete nonsense, and if it is, I'd prefer not to know - I like the idea that my weeds have a bit of fight in them and aren't afraid to take one for the team.
Vinegar will kill them. Simply spray with regular white vinegar. Home brand is fine and is only about $1.08 for 2 litres. It will kill them in two to three days.
It's not residual though, so may need doing again because weed seeds will blow in from time to time, as you have already discovered. I'd recommend trying that first. Then if you find the regrowth is too frequent, mix half a cup of salt and a dessertspoon full of detergent in with it, making sure the salt has entirely dissolved before putting into your spray bottle. This will give a much longer lasting result, but I suspect the salt is likely to leave a residue on your pavers that is more work to remove than the weeds.
Boiling water or steam will also kill them, but with the size of the area you have might be a slow job.