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Weeds covered all over my slate chippings

icekulicekul Posts: 4
in Problem solving

Hello,

I am a complete novice so please kindly bare with me. Basically we had a lot of weeds in the kitchen garden when I moved in 2 years back and hence last year I removed all of them manually and as an ornamental feature and hoping weeds don't return covered it with slate chippings from B&Q around an inch and half thick across a 4mx1m kitchen garden.

Roll on 9 months and the slate chippings are completely covered in weeds again and looks like a mess. I wanted advise on how best to go around a) killing the weeds to the roots and if possible giving the existence of all the slate chippings. b) how i can avoid the problem coming back.

Thanks in advance for reading and the assistance!image

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Posts

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039

    Weeds will turn up whatever you do. A weed suppressing membrane would help, but weeds will still appear. I would use weedkiller every few months to keep it looking nice.

    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • icekulicekul Posts: 4

    Thank you Philippa. There was no weed resistant membrane placed before we put the slate - didn't think of using the internet and researching before going down the route and trying image.

    I am tempted to go down the route of starting again and placing a membrane. Just wondering what is the best weed resistant material to put on top or does it just need a load of more slate.

  • Scott EdwardsScott Edwards Posts: 227

    I have area that was completely overgrown with weeds last year. What I did was to firstly weed the area by hand, When some weeds started to regrow I then sprayed the area with a weed killer. I then laid down a weed supressing membrane and covered with stone chipping simply because the colour worked better with the house than slate. A few annual weeds have self seeded into the chipping but have been easy to pull out. Haven't had any real problems with weeds underneath the membrane pushing through. A few have tried to escape at the edges and I've sprayed these with a weed killer that goes down into the roots. I think the membrane will make a big difference for you.  

  • Steve 309Steve 309 Posts: 2,753

    ...and if you only need a small area they might let you have an offcut.

    The thing is with weeds, you have to keep at them, cos they don't take time off!  You can't just fit something and forget it.  Well, tarmac, maybe, but even that's not immune and you can't grow stuff in it. 

  • icekulicekul Posts: 4

    Thanks everyone for the comments they are appreciated. Knowing there is solutions out there which people are suggesting after trying is a relief image. 

    I will remove the slate and pluck the weeds out. See what re-surfaces and go from there. That will give me enough time to get the right membrane as well.

    This might be a silly question but what is being recommended is  -soil at the bottom, the membrane above that and slate on top. 

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,441

    Yes, that's the order. seeds will germinate in the slate, weed seeds are everywhere, but if you tweak them out when small they come out easily



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • icekulicekul Posts: 4

    Cool stuff. Will get on the weed case tomorrow. Thanks again

  • yarrow2yarrow2 Posts: 782

    icekull - I had to cheaply cover an area about 15ft x 4ft three years ago.  I bought a roll of weed membrane and 26 bags of blue slate from B&Q.  The first year it looked lovely and was perfect.  Second year it became clear that although it seemed there were more than enough chippings, as I'd been walking around every day on them they were being pushed down, slipping around.  Some grass and weeds started to grow through in places but were very easily pulled out.  BUT - now it's a complete mess with everything pushing it's way through and now completely through the membrane.

    Get advice from someone who knows the best quality membrane, as others have said.  Mine has been a disaster and I'm going to have to remove the lot and start again.

  • GWRSGWRS Posts: 8,478

    Hello , if you have not got time to put a membrane down you could just use weed killer that kills the roots of the weeds , you will then use some path clear stuff regularly 

    If you can see soil or membrane you need more slate putting down

    you will always get seeds germinating in the slate which needs pulling out or spraying

    best of luckimage

  • Steve 309Steve 309 Posts: 2,753

    ...if you don't mind putting poisons inti the soil....

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