Driveway weeds, begone!

[fungussingstheblues]

I have a monoblock driveway as do lots of my neighbours. Theirs look fine, perhaps the odd dandelion or sprig of grass popping through the cracks. Mine looks like an urban jungle.

I have tried boiling salted water, wasted £50 on a fecking weed burner that only seemed to encourage stronger, greener growth, hoiked them out manually with those hook-y things and sprayed weedkiller between the cracks (a squirty bottle –haven't tried the heavy-duty backpack with power spray thing, but I feel that's going a bit far...). Nothing seems to keep them at bay for more than a couple of weeks and I don't see my neighbours out there slaving over theirs every fortnight.

Why do I have such a fertile driveway? The only thing I can think of now is sand between the cracks to suffocate them – will this work? Or does anyone have any better ideas?

The problem with sprays is that they don't stay where you want them of course. Birds love to peck about on the roads , the grit is good for their eggs. You can,t very well put up a sign to tell them to stay off the drive can you?

Also the sprays are toxic for human health . I LIKE my weeds I have a specific garden where I grow them to see what will come up, I've got woad ! The others I just cut them and keep on cutting when I see them again , that works but takes time.

. I LIKE my weeds I have a specific garden where I grow them to see what will come up, I've got woad !

I can tell you are a dye hard gardener.

Once you've removed all the weeds you could paint a path sealant over the top. It will limit where the weeds will come through and make the whole things easier to keep clean

Oh ha ha ha ha yeah topofthewardrobe

I had a brainwave last night. You can get a special type of cement that hardens with rain. so you don't have to mix it in a machine thingy. They use it on some of the gardening programmes. Worth a look?

What weeds do you have? If the roots are established under the paving stones then it will be very hard to kill them.

I would be tempted to pull up as many as possible, with roots, brush out the old filler and apply sand. Then spot apply glysophate to any weeds that come up from established roots, to kill off their root systems. I have only used a few ml of glysophate in my life, but established roots under structures is one of the few exceptions to my organic rule. Snap the leaves off and apply a drop direct into the stem with a syringe.

Sweep regularly to stop new weeds seeding.