What are your recommendations for this area?

[SouperLou]

moved in to a house which belonged to elderly relative.

how’s best to tackle this? Small front garden. North facing.

if weed killer, which one is best for a family with children? Also cats in the area so I’m worried about using weed killer. Never had a garden before.

we want to replace the stones. Shall we dig them up and replace or cover over the top and leave old ones below?

advice welcomed. We are looking for something low maintainable and low cost - just freshened up

If you dont want to grow anything there you can use salt to kill the weeds. Buy big bags of ordinary table salt and cover the area with it. Do it before a rainy day and the rain will water it in.

Don't get salt on any plants you want to keep, or any areas you want to use for plants.

I almost never use poisons but I’d consider weedkiller for this area. However, as you can see, weeds will work their way in even among stones, and even over/through membrane. So you’ll need to be prepared to do it all again every so often.

we may want to grow something there in the future so don’t think salt is something we would us but thank you for the idea!

should we replace the membrane? Looking at it tonight I think we might as it’s torn and some is actually just plastic tarp rather than membrane so has become brittle

Rake the stones off and weed it first. Download a plant identifier app so you don’t throw any plants away! Then put a double layer of weed membrane down and rake the stones back. Or add a couple of bags of soil and a few roses or some shrubs and bark it. Probably cost you under £75 pounds and some time well spent.

B&Q is good for supplies and plants. Good luck

If it’s small I’d just weed it all thoroughly. I’m currently tackling a very big garden wgich is completely infested with dock and winter heliotrope.

Thank you for the advice!
there are some small roses at the back along the wall and one central rowan we will keep but everything else are weeds so they gotta go! Will try hand weeding first and see how it goes.

Please don't put salt down. It stays in the soil and will badly affect plants for years afterwards.

Far and away the best and cheapest weedkiller is a pair of hands and knees, a trowel, a sharp vegetable knife and a kneeling mat. And some elbow grease.

Yes, this is me at the moment. And will be for months. It’s actually weirdly Zen.