£250 + Vat to clear weeds. Is that reasonable?

[Toddlerteaplease]

Need to get the weeds in my garden cleared. I've been quoted £250 plus vat to spray them with industrial strength weed killer. I have no idea if that sounds reasonable or not. It's a fairly small garden.

@Toddlerteaplease No sorry, I'm in the south west 😀

@Chemenger You need to find a qualified gardener - they'll know the difference between weeds and plants.

It's such a shame to hear so many people use weedkiller. It is so bad for the insects and all the animals who live on them from birds to hedgehogs.

I paid £250 last year for a similar sized garden with far more weeds. That included spraying weedkiller, returning a few weeks later to remove the dead weeds, and chisel more dead weeds out of the spaces between my patio slabs. I thought that was pricey for the time put in but it's really hard to get tradesmen and gardeners to show up at all.

Do not do that!!! You have cats— industrial weedkillers will affect any living animal that comes into contact with it. What you need is an electric strimmer. Ask in a local garden group ok FB. People will happily lent you one for a few hours. After that slowly start digging out the roots.

If the industrial strength stuff is anything like the stuff our council use , it won't prevent the weeds coming back or others growing this season .

Easier said than done! At least round here. I’ve solved the problem of a large, unruly garden by selling to to an unsuspecting family and moving to a flat.

Even if you use strong weedkiller, the weeds will always come back. To remove them completely would need some proper membrane putting under the stones/gravel, etc to stop light getting to the soil, and even then, there are still weeds which would grow from seeds being dropped by birds etc. Weedkiller is only ever a temporary solution.

That sounds a lot - but you have to factor in that they have to travel to you and back and probably therefore you are paying for half a day's work for what is pretty small job. As others have said, spraying will still leave you dead plants to pull out of the gravel.

There are a few obvious choices:

1. Roundup - to kill anything green that it contacts, but allow the planting of new plants as soon as the spray has dried.

2. Roundup plus a residual herbicide - which will keep the gravel pretty much weed/plant free for up to 12 months. You would be able to have plans in pots / planters, just not planted in the ground (as the residual herbicide prevents plants rooting).

3. Weed suppressant fabric under the gravel - rake up all the gravel (and ideally lift the slabs), lay weed suppressant membrane, and then put the gravel (and slabs) back on top.

3 is the most work, but also will last the longest (3-5 years), will stop weeds and will allow you to plant new plants through the holes in the membrane. Any weeds that do grow will be in the gravel and on top of the weed suppressant and therefore be easier to remove.

Was the stone just laid on top of soil ? For that price I’d ask them to remove the stone , install a weed membrane and restone otherwise you’re going to have exactly the same problem next year

Don’t use weed killer. Plus it’s a garden they will always come back, the membrane is the best idea. Plus it’s all gravel how about some raised planters round edge or just something so it’s somewhere that’s a little more pleasant.

Pay for a proper gardener to weed it. But they will come back even if you poison the crap out of your garden

No, that's extortionate and won't actually solve your problem. I would be asking them to weed by hand and lay a membrane.

Wouldn't use weedkiller if you have cats, whatever the guy says.

Nothing is going to solve this permanently as more seeds will arrive on the wind and wind n bird poop. Better to pay someone once a year to weed for you.

Our gardener charges £25 per hour, and we're in an expensive area. You could get someone to weed and then redo the whole garden with a new weed proof layer for less than the weed killer spray.

Also, I know they say it's safe but the last time the council sprayed our local park the squirrel numbers plummeted.

Nothing will “solve it on a permanent basis” even Agent Orange.
Weed killers are linked to various horrible diseases, including Parkinson’s and cancer , do you really want a ton of that in your garden ? That is aside from the catastrophic effects on the environment generally .

It won't be permanent, more will just come back, it is expensive for someone to spray weedkiller, I would get someone in to weed it but it will need doing regularly after that

No weed killer with cats. Find someone to come and dig them out. It’s not a very long job as there’s not very much of them.

How much roughly for a new membrane to be laid?

Why don’t you just hire a gardener or local kid for a couple of hours to weed it for you. Ask on your local Facebook page.

I’d also say you have clearly got a lot of dead ones there, you need to pull them out.

For that size just hand pull what you can and buy a £25 pump container of weed killer plus you'll need waterproof gloves. You don't need a professional

If you're able this is a job you could tackle, rake up the stones, lay a very thick membrane(tarpaulin) stones raked back out them apart them liberally with a salt and vinegar solution to kill any remaining weeds among them, repeat the spray for a few weeks.

*spray not apart

I've just been watching Chelsea Flower Show on the telly. Weeds are fashionable! It's official.

I've already done that!

Yes I killed them last weeks