So.... I'm thinking of napalming the lot

[cilitbang]

The weeds just come back and come back and come back.....driving me nuts and I can't keep up with it. I'm thinking of digging out the few plants I want to keep then and killing the remaining lot. I want a blank canvas to plant into afterwhich the maintainance should be an hour or so a week to keep ontop of the weeds. What's the best and most effective way getting to this point....preferably eco-friendly too. Its for my front garden...a square shaped garden with a gravel doughnut shape, with a pussy willow in the middle, and flower beds (well, more weed beds)around the edge of the square. Weeds and grass are coming through the 'weed barrier'under the gravel, and the beds are just full of them too, there's just no stopping them. Please please whats my best course of action?

What sort of weeds? If it's anything particularly nasty like ground elder or bindweed then you may need to resort to a glyphosate based weedkiller to get rid of them - that's if you want them gone in a hurry.

If you can wait, then you can dig most of the roots out by hand, then cover the entire surface of the soil in black polythene or carpet or anything which will keep out the light. But you will need to exclude light until spring next year, when most of the weeds will be dead and any that do come back should be weakened and you can dig them out by hand or spot treat with weedkiller at that point.

I speak from hard earned experience as I inherited a garden that had been left to run wild for 12 years and was 6 foot high in brambles, ground elder, nettles and bindweed. I won though and now have a proper garden with grass and flower borders and such like and can sit out and enjoy a glass (or 2) of wine. Good luck!