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Clearing a garden path
Bernadette Salisbury
Posts: 2
Hello! I'd appreciate advice about how to clear a stone pathway. I recently took up gardening (although so far I've mostly just been tidying up ) and I'm not sure what to do about a stone pathway. It is in a very wellestablished garden which was neglected for 2 years. The stone pathway is covered in grass and other plants, what is the best way to clear it? Thanks!
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Is your path made of flat stones with cement between them? Is it in good condition? Do you want to keep it? If the grass etc is covering it because it's spreading over from the borders either side, but isn't actually rooted in the path, it's a fairly easy job just to cut it back & sweep the bits off the stones. If you've got weeds rooted between the stones you've got 2 problems. The first involves removing the weeds - either by hand, scraping with an old knife (or a special path weeding tool), or with weedkiller. If you use weedkiller you need to apply it very carefully so you don't kill wanted plants - then when the weeds are dead you can remove them, which will enable you to solve the 2nd problem by re-pointing the gaps between the stones so weeds can't grow there any more. Once you've got on top of the weeds you'll probably find you need to remove the odd seedling occasionally, but you should never have the same problem again.
Hi, Thanks for theadvice, it's a gravel pathway so I'll to put some weed killer down (carefully) and follow your advice from there. Thanks a mill!
Hello and welcome to the forum
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It sounds as if you have quite a bit of work to do there Bernadette and not an uncommon problem at any time of the year. I find the weeds appear between my flagstonest every time I turn round!
Can you take 'before and after' photos, they help to remind you just why you are down on your knees weeding yet again!
just be careful that you don't tread in the weed killer covered gravel and then walk across your lawn, I've had the dreaded golden boot prints before now!
You can get weedkiller designed for paths, containing something to kill the top growth plus a chemical to inhibit seeds germinating in the gravel. A lot of weeds love living in gravel so this is useful... you don't want the path weedkiller on your borders though!