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Re-laying weed membrane and decorative slate
colin_armstrong
Posts: 3
Hi - I have a small part of my front garden that has a very worn weed membrane with some decorative slate chips on it. I intend to replace the membrane as it's ineffective at preventing weeds.
Replacing the membrane I'm fine with. However, the existing decorative slate is a mixture of slate, hummus and probably a bunch of weed seeds. Am I best just buying in new decorative slate or is there a way to clean and reuse what's there (i.e. ridding it of the humus and weed seeds). I'd rather do the latter if there's a reasonably manageable way of doing it.
Thanks for any help given!
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Anytime we have to do anything in the ground, we've a fair amount of gravel to shift, and the weed prevention liner under that. As it's not been down for years and years there isn't much debris in there, but there is still bits of broken off gravel and dust and some earth that worms have pushed through at the edges. A sieve and a quick wash (if I can be bothered) works for us.
Thanks for the advice. What do you using for sieving? The concept sounds fine, just not sure how it could be applied on scale?
As I say, our gravel and liner hasn't been down for all that long, so we don't have lots of crud in there. It's really only the edges that are a bit muddy that might need a sieving to remove most of the soil in those shovel fulls.
I'll tend to use a dustpan and brush to sweep up the grit and whatever, that sits on the liner once the gravel is up. Makes life easier to fold the liner and well, heck that only takes a minute or two.
From limited experience, the weed liner helps to prevent some weeds, but others will just grow through it. It tends to help prevent dandelions and other typical types, as they only grow in the gravel, and roots aren't getting any purchase (but clearly are developing!). Makes them easier to pull out.
Originally, when we were laying the gravel I sieved a LOT (a few builders wheel barrows full!) of it that was destined for the smaller areas. About 4-5 washes under a running tap got a lot of the muck off. Black granite is a pain for this, as it looks soo darn dusty and grey otherwise. The rest we just hosed down once it was on the ground and let rain do the rest.
I suppose, if you had a place to pool the slate, like an old tonne gravel bag, you could chuck the slate into that and hit it with some glyphosate . That should take care of most organic growth on it. Obviously, any herbicides shouldn't be used on windy days else it'll travel and damage other plants, and one should use necessary and relevant PPE when making it up from concentrate (if applicable) and using it.
A few days or so and the treated slate should be 'clean' enough to put back on the ground without any ill effects on plants.
We are on a hill though, so the debris was able to run away leaving the clean slate.
Thanks, I was thinking on doing something similar, but we're on very flat ground. Maybe I'll build a dome shame with the slate so the debris at least runs to the bottom.