You need a metal spike with a handle - there are a variety of variations on that theme available in all garden centres - a cushion and a regular 15 or 20 minutes a day digging out a section of patio weeds. Tree seedlings are tough to get out but don't regrow from root bits. You can get out the other weeds while you're there.
I am selective about what I weed out, leaving the wild chamomile and self sown sedums. These take over the gaps, helped out with a few creeping thyme plants that I've put into the widest cracks. I still get tree seedlings (beech in my case, but the same principle) and nettles and grass coming up, but the creepers are slowly filling in the gaps, reducing the amount I have to weed out each year and making the rather ugly paving less ugly.
If you pour any sort of chemical on there, you'll kill everything, leaving plenty of space for the next lot of seeds that blow by to get a toehold into. It's quicker today but means more work in the long run.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
You need a metal spike with a handle - there are a variety of variations on that theme available in all garden centres - a cushion and a regular 15 or 20 minutes a day digging out a section of patio weeds. Tree seedlings are tough to get out but don't regrow from root bits. You can get out the other weeds while you're there.
I am selective about what I weed out, leaving the wild chamomile and self sown sedums. These take over the gaps, helped out with a few creeping thyme plants that I've put into the widest cracks. I still get tree seedlings (beech in my case, but the same principle) and nettles and grass coming up, but the creepers are slowly filling in the gaps, reducing the amount I have to weed out each year and making the rather ugly paving less ugly.
If you pour any sort of chemical on there, you'll kill everything, leaving plenty of space for the next lot of seeds that blow by to get a toehold into. It's quicker today but means more work in the long run.
I wish I had some lovely self seeding plants coming in, like camomile and sedums! We only moved 2 months ago and it was barren wasteland of sycamore, ground elder, dead grass, brambles, the usual neglected-for-years-mess. I managed to find one geum, 2 roses (almost dead, but I've potted them up, fed and am now waiting to see what they are!), some hardy geraniums and that's about it. Good point about pouring chemicals down those cracks - I'll get the sapling out somehow, then stick in some pernicious little ground covers as you say. I have already discovered I have muscles in places I didn't know I had!
I wish I had some lovely self seeding plants coming in, like camomile and sedums!
They are probably about, but the brambles and sycamore are stronger for now. If you buy creeping sedums as small plants, you can break off really small bits, put some sand into the newly weeded cracks, shove a few tiny bit of sedum in there and 9 times out of 10 they will take. House leeks will too but they need to be in the corners so you don't accidentally tread on them.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I wish I had some lovely self seeding plants coming in, like camomile and sedums!
They are probably about, but the brambles and sycamore are stronger for now. If you buy creeping sedums as small plants, you can break off really small bits, put some sand into the newly weeded cracks, shove a few tiny bit of sedum in there and 9 times out of 10 they will take. House leeks will too but they need to be in the corners so you don't accidentally tread on them.
Facebook groups would have you turn your garden into a bag of fish and chips... destroying the natural balance of the soil in the process and killing bug life.
Options: weedkiller. Great, east, inert and doesn't do anything to other wildlife. Hoe: need to be regular. Hard work. Other tools: as above. Suppression layers: carpet, cardboard, mulch. Effective if maintained. Weeds will still grow.
Scroll down to see and then go check out handle lengths so you can decide to do it on your knees or standing up. Good garden centres stock this system and there are other essential tool heads such as the hooky "cultivator" and the double edged hoe head which works pushing and pulling. We have several hoe heads, 3 rakes, a brush head and several handles so we can both play in our own bits.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
I am selective about what I weed out, leaving the wild chamomile and self sown sedums. These take over the gaps, helped out with a few creeping thyme plants that I've put into the widest cracks. I still get tree seedlings (beech in my case, but the same principle) and nettles and grass coming up, but the creepers are slowly filling in the gaps, reducing the amount I have to weed out each year and making the rather ugly paving less ugly.
If you pour any sort of chemical on there, you'll kill everything, leaving plenty of space for the next lot of seeds that blow by to get a toehold into. It's quicker today but means more work in the long run.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I wish I had some lovely self seeding plants coming in, like camomile and sedums! We only moved 2 months ago and it was barren wasteland of sycamore, ground elder, dead grass, brambles, the usual neglected-for-years-mess.
I managed to find one geum, 2 roses (almost dead, but I've potted them up, fed and am now waiting to see what they are!), some hardy geraniums and that's about it.
Good point about pouring chemicals down those cracks - I'll get the sapling out somehow, then stick in some pernicious little ground covers as you say. I have already discovered I have muscles in places I didn't know I had!
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Googling creeping thymes now...
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Options: weedkiller. Great, east, inert and doesn't do anything to other wildlife.
Hoe: need to be regular. Hard work.
Other tools: as above.
Suppression layers: carpet, cardboard, mulch. Effective if maintained. Weeds will still grow.
Scroll down to see and then go check out handle lengths so you can decide to do it on your knees or standing up. Good garden centres stock this system and there are other essential tool heads such as the hooky "cultivator" and the double edged hoe head which works pushing and pulling. We have several hoe heads, 3 rakes, a brush head and several handles so we can both play in our own bits.