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weeds and gravel
Julie Francis2
Posts: 2
I have a gravelled garden but the people that lived in the house before me didn't use weed barrier. The garden is full of weeds, can I cut these down and put barrier over the top after removing the gravel or do I have to pull them all up by the roots?
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Posts
it would depend if the weeds are annuals or perennial.
Remember, when you remove the gravel, presumably to re-use? , you'll be removing millions of seeds in it too.
Why not use a round point shovel and give the weeds a good tearing up at least if you aren't going to annihilate them, You can cut them down and put weed membrane on top as long as you ensure it's of very good quality, make sure if you buy the fabric or woven sheets that they don't have little pin sized holes because weeds can still find light through them.
I used to have the plastic cheap looking sheets on my gravel drive it was double layered for extra protection and it worked perfectly, keep it down with pegs or something though because if any part of it gets a tear in it then the weed will poke through it.
If you are planting plants in the area you should ensure that the hole in the sheeting is big enough so that the roots gets sufficient water and air, you'll need to pull weeds from there now and again but it's a small price to pay if you're plant isn't going to get root rot.
Spray the whole area with something like Roundup which will kill down to the roots. It does take a little time but worth doing first. Then remove the gravel and lay the weed barrier before replacing the gravel. After that, any weeds which do appear will be easy to remove by hand.
Yes, but they will be really easy to pull up because they cant get the same hold.
I have a membrane, but a lot of plants (including for-get-me-nots) can grow in the pea shingle or coarser gravel. Use a hoe, I think it is called a Dutch Hoe; it works very well.
Roundup needs at least 4 , better still 6 hours of no rain.
It's a bit late as plants should be in " active growth" and many things have slowed down now.
Maybe you could make weeding a " little and often " job between now and Spring? Very therapeutic.