I'm seriously considering salting the earth.
Pic 1: before
Pic 2: the tool I used
Pic 3: after
This takes up hours an I have pain in my back an fingers, is there a better way? I bought a weed burner but it was effective but it still took a while.
by MopoFett
14 Comments
Also I don’t use weed killers! Sorry I should have mentioned that
I’ve seen other people say use boiling water I’ve not tried that myself
You do it the way I do it, except I use a small stool to park my backside while I’m at it. Also copious amounts of tea. I often listen to podcasts to help me along. Gardening gloves are a must but not one with seams as they give me blisters 🙄
Fill the gaps with some kind of grout compound to help suppress them, obviously better done when initially laying them, but my parents done it with their patio and they hardly get any weeds growing through at all.
You’ve done a lovely job. As others have said, a little stool or kneeler is great for these sorts of jobs. If you keep on top of it by nipping out anything that starts growing it’ll be easier. You can try brushing sand into the cracks but the weeds will probably still come through.
I use a flat hoe or one of those wire brushes on a stick. I keep seeing this sharp scraper thing on Pinterest that I really want but I’m not going to buy it from some dodgy place.
Three cheers for a good job well done. 👊
I used the same tool as you, then removed as much of the soil from the gaps as I possibly could (pressure washer was good if you’ve got one) then filled really solidly with patio sand (brushed it in, watered it in, refilled it after it sunk). Doesn’t completely solve but helped for a year or two.
Looks like a good candidate for some of the grout/pointing stuff you can get in a variety of colours that you mix up in the tub it comes in and fill all the gaps which will certainly slow them down. I know you don’t like weed killer but I’d wait a few weeks and weed kill everything that comes back then fill the gaps but if you don’t want to it will at least slow them down for you
Those weed burners quite often don’t get to the root, follow it up by getting a big container of salt, you know those big plastic pots in the supermarket, use it to pour the salt into the crevices, be generous fill the crevice up and then brush any spillage into the crevices as well, then leave alone it will take a few days for it to take affect but it will leave you weed free for many weeks and may well take you into next year before you have to reapply
I bought a tool off temu which is like a broom so at least I didn’t have to bend over as much
Great work!
Job’s a good ‘en
Now you’ve done it it’ll be alot easier to keep on top of. Silver linings