How to get rid of weeds in a gravel drive?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Our drive is awful, and massive. We measured today and it’s 22m x 18m!

it’s very very weedy where the cars don’t park. It has currently got a Cotswold stone gravel all over, very shallow in places, no membrane, just sat on very hard, compacted ‘ground’ (our local soil is heavy clay so a combination of that and the stone) . It won’t have been done properly before we bought the house. it’s not been cared for particularly well since we bought it either tbh.

we are prepared to graft. We are going to buy 30x bulk bags of stone. please Help me plan what I need to do before my stone gets delivered! i think we need to use a shovel and scrape away the stone,section by section, scrape out the weeds, use some sort of weed killer, replace the old stone, then replenish the whole drive with the new stone.

dh thinks we need to pull up the weeds, spray with roundup, stick a load of new stone on top and job done.

any experience if this and success stories?

Can you clear it in sections to expose the ground, put weed matting down, and repeat for all sections? Just swipe the gravel from one section onto another, put matting down and then do another section if you see what I mean.

You need the membrane to avoid weeds in the future.

I have this, gravel with a torn membrane. I am weeding the gravel over time to remove as many weeds as possible. When I have done as many as I can I am going to scrape up the gravel, re membrane and put it back.

I think you should use a membrane on your drive. But make sure you get the correct one. Otherwise I could imagine cars moving over the gravel will tear up the membrane pretty quickly.

We have a similar problem so following with interest. The problem with weed membrane is it can potentially be very expensive if you have a large area to cover. Also, if the seeds are airborne my thinking is it won't make much difference anyway.

Friends of mine with a massive gravel drive use a weed killing flame throwing type device, like a long stick with a burner at the end. Was a long job the first time, now just occasional.

Oh god, this is the bane of my life too.

I actually don't think membrane helps very much. We put it down on the new path we made a few years ago and it has just as many weeds as the areas with no membrane. In fact, it's probably harder to deal with because the roots of the grass (the worst culprit!) lock into the membrane and make it very hard to pull up.

I also wouldn't put loads of stones down! We did this thinking it would help, but walking on deep stones is uncomfortable and makes you much more likely to turn your ankle. And the weeds still drop their seeds and take root on the top.

I have spent many days on my knees pulling them out with tools and thick gloves but the area is too big to keep on top of, so we are going down the 'kill it with fire' route as mentioned in a PP. May also try Roundup, and see if the brush cutter tool we just had delivered can work without causing havoc with flying gravel.

Good luck!

Ours is laid on compacted hoggin, which stops the weeds getting a deep foot hold.

Just tackle it in the spring, depending on weather, when the weeds start growing. Either Roundup type stuff (weather needs to be dry and not windy) or the burner. It is usually only the odd weed once you have done this.

If you go round with a trowel digging up the weeds, it creates disturbance and the light loving weed seeds will be moved to the surface and grow like mad. You only really need to do this if you have let any weeds grow too big.

We use a mix of vinegar, soap and salt. Google will give you the ratios.

Our gravel front garden was a nightmare for weeds and they kept coming up through the membrane.

We changed the membrane to roofing felt and it stopped all the weeds getting a good grip into the soil so they just pull right up. We also have an electric weed killer (it burns them to death using heat) for the bigger ones .

Forgot to add - make sure you poke some holes in it periodically if you use roofing felt as it's designed to be non permeable and you dont want flooding

Roofing felt as in [ https://www.wickes.co.uk/Products/Building-Materials/Roofing/Roof-Felt/c/1001112?&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwupGyBhBBEiwA0UcqaOoDO9BJNG3qykaNtWAVKrjNLwzsUwZiGetfuJ0vFDSPEKpA9rSrlxoCNN0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds this stuff] ?

@fromtheshires I’d be quite concerned about flooding tbh, we’re on a slight slope and have no drainage

I might look at getting one of those burner things. Pulling them up manually is making no difference whatsoever, by the next day they are back in abundance. I think we do need to replenish the gravel, I just want to kill the weeds first, properly.

I have exactly the same issue in my garden. The membrane doesn't help at all. I wish I just had grass!

Thats the stuff. Yeah if you're on a slope and have drainage issues then you may want to have a think about it.

Ours has never flooded but i put a lot of small holes in it to account for drainage issues.

i know we should have started earlier in the year but I do now need to deal with them, my neighbours are lovely and very garden proud and we feel so guilty that our weeds are encroaching their garden. Plus it looks awful

I put my old Carpet upside down and then covered that with the gravel, it’s much better than buying plastic membrane that doesn’t work and it’s recycling but best of all saved my a trip to tip. I can confirm no weeds have grown since putting down the carpet. It’s great drainage too!

We use a weed burner or a spray bottle with salt water on our very long drive.

I'd be saving up to get some sort of hard surface down like paving or concrete/tarmac. Gravel is a curse to maintain.

@seethingmess we are, but it’s such a big drive, it will be very expensive. We need a stop gap to cut down the endless weeding. Hopefully if we kill the existing weeds and replenish the gravel then the ongoing maintenance will reduce massively while we save up.

You could be a friend to the environment and let the weeds grow. Plant some pretty things in amongst them and trim the edges so it looks cared for.

The only thing you need is a rake.

Rake the weeds out of the stone. Put the new stuff down.

You don't need membrane, just rake the drive every few weeks. This will keep the weeds away and also stop the stones compacting into "tyre tracks".

The process is also very Zen like. Pop some headphones on and disappear into your own little world for as long as you like.

"Sorry kids, just HAVE to go rake the drive, back in a few hours".

Perfect excuse for some "me time".

I'd spray with a weedkiller, put the extra stone down, then keep on top of it.

Alternative would be to take everything up and put a membrane down, but they don't last forever and weeds grow on top of it anyway, although it does make it easier to pull them out.

I keep on top of mine with boiling water. A couple of kettles each evening when I water the pots.

Either Alsi or Lidl have the electric ones on special this week-would redo mend the electric over the ones with gas canisters as there’s no ongoing cost for refills…and they’re very satisfying to use 😂

Your dh is wrong. The weeds will come back. I would have thought you need a proper tough membrane to prevent weeds coming back.