Can't see the gravel for the weeds!

While I appreciate that weeds are the bane of everyone's life, they are really making my life hell just now. My house was built about 9 years ago and as the soil was always poor, I laid the majority of the plot to gravel with raised beds, pots and the odd pocket of planting. Because I had a large area to cover I had to go for the cheapest option at the time - 20mm builder's gravel - and a heavy duty landscape fabric was laid underneath but the weeds are still thriving in the gravel itself. Over the years the weed problem has got steadily worse with fireweed being the main culprit, although wild grass is becoming more rife now as well. It has been made worse this year as I have been sidelined with a bad back and havn't been able to get out to maintain things so far. I took a walk around this morning and my heart sank at the sight! The majority of the gravel is literally carpeted in the stuff in the attached pics (presumably young fireweed?) although grass is very evident as well. There are even a lot of forget-me-nots in evidence. What bothers me more than anything else is my neighbours do not seem to have the same scale of problems I do. One of my neighbours dispensed with his front lawn last year and replaced it with gravel and he doesn't have a weed in sight, and he isn't out pulling out seedlings every 5 minutes either! This makes me think the gravel itself is the culprit - perhaps there was a lot of dust among it and this has given the weeds something to germinate in? I really don't know, all I know is I am so sick of the sight of it I am considering hiring a landscaper to come in and rip everything out and start again. :(

 

I too have (some) gravel, paths mainly, which I put down about 10 - 12 years ago and I too put down weed membrane. I have to say that if I did it again, I wouldn't bother with the membrane, some really persistent weeds do still push up from underneath (but then these are the type of little blighters that I've seen push their way through 4" of concrete, so a bit of membrane was never going to stop them!). The reason I wouldn't bother with membrane is that when trying to get at those growing from 'underneath', the membrane actually gets in the way of digging up the roots.

None of which is really helping you.

What you have to remember is that whilst membrane - of any type - will stop most weeds from germinating from below, there is little or nothing you can do about wind blown seeds which land on the surface, many of which will just grow happily with a bit of water (from the rain) and will eventually push their roots downwards.

Now, in situations like this, I have no scruples whatsoever in reaching for a chemical and spraying it on and, I suspect, your neighbour may have done a similar thing.

If you can't physically pull out the weed seedlings, I'd suggest that before you spend what will possibly be a considerable amount of money for someone to come 'and rip everything out', that you get some Roundup, Pathclear or any glyphosate weed killer and pour or spray that around - you may well have to give it more than one treatment, and I know that those chemicals aren't exactly cheap (especially if you've a large area), but they will be a lot less than 'getting a man in' and might be all you really need to do.

 

Franco, don`t blame it on the gravel, blame it on the fact you`ve not bothered to pull the weeds out, Don`t tell me you`ve not done anything because you have a bad back, I`m a professional gardener with scoliosis and fibromyalgia and I still manage to get on my knees and weed.:D

 

I would agree wth Fidgetsmum. Sometimes I think weed supressant fabric is a bit of a misnomer. The main benefit of the fabric is that it prevents the gravel sinking into the wet soil when it rains. The problem is that soil, decaying leaves and other detritis accumulate in the gravel. When I pull weeds out of my gravel area I am always amazes at how much soil the roots pull out, when there shouldn't be any soil there at all.

On the parts of the gravel that I walk on regularly there are no weeds, but they do accumulate on the rest.

Weedkiller, I think, is the only solution.

 

We have always used fabric to make sure everything is in one place and of it needs moving, or topping up, it's easy to move if you need to otherwise you'll be digging the gravel into the soil if you need it relocated!

 

I agree with Fidgetsmum and Peter. On the whole the areas where we don't have a membrane are less of a problem than those where we do. I pull seedlings out but when it all gets a bit much I have no hesitation in reaching for the Roundup.

 

I couldn't kneel on the ground if someone paid me to....... Well, I COULD but I wouldn't be able to get back UP!! I also have a bad back and arthritis so am usually in pain and not too keen on making that pain any worse. My solution is my camp chair which I can drag around where I need it and sit to do things as well as support myself when I lean over by putting my arm on my leg. Even then it gets hard to do stuff after a while but I last MUCH longer than if I were to do it the "normal" way! Shiney, I'd probably fall off the bucket!!

 

I'm in exactly the same situation - as you say, it's not the getting down that's the problem ..... it's the getting up afterwards!

 

Shiney, I`ve had a bad back for 60 years, it is something I was born with, however, you, Fidgetsmum and Catztail, all have problems, but it doesn`t stop any of you from weeding. And Shiney, I hope I am still weeding at 96.