will this weed killer damage my hedge?

Hi, I have a small gravel driveway that I wish to weedkill very aggressively.

As I wont ever want anything to grow there I was hoping to get my hands on some sodium chlorate (have used sucessfully in the past).
Failing that I was going to go down the vinegar, salt, soap route.

I have no plants or lawn near it that might be damaged however I do have a large and very old hedge running down the side of the driveway. Is it possible either of these weedkillers could damage the hedge? Its 5ft high, 4ft wide amd probable 40 ft long. Its very old, very well established and each trunk is at least 1/2 a foot wide.

NoW I think I know the answer...but they do say salt kills EVERYTHING. so im just checking first.

 

Now banned ...

Its only a contact killer, so won't give you long term protection.

If you get runnoff, following heavy rainfall for example, then yes I think it could.

Your best bet, I think, would be Pathclear - its the only long term persistent weedkiller that I know of that is still on the market. Pretty contains Glyphosate, which will only kill actively growing plants, and Diflufenican which will have some longer term residual effect.

Pretty much the only solution these days is to spray with Glyphosate, but that has no residual effect, so has to be reapplied when new weeds appear.

Maintaining a decent depth of gravel, on the drive, will help.

 

The annoying thing, for me and maybe the O/P too, is that the weeds spring up all thorough and during the year ... so a residual herbicide would be great for taking care of them, rather than having to Glyphosate them (or hand weed them ...) every few weeks.

But I don't have an answer that fits that requirement, sadly.

Flame thrower / wand maybe ? More fun than a weedkiller

 

That sounds fun! something like this? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Range-WEED-BURNER-Cannisters-Butane/dp/B008CIT3MS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374661407&sr=8-1&keywords=weed+burner

 

I have one of these
http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/...ders/Flame+Gun+Hood++Trolley_MH096.htm#575002



but they seem incredibly expensive, compared to what I paid for mine (many MANY years ago ...). I have a spare too, which came from a car boot sale, so that/eBay might be an answer.

Depends on the area but I think those camping gas canister ones might not be up to the job for larger area.

 

I had a large area of gravel to manage at mum in law's and found Pathclear was working out expensive so turned to Pistol as although the initial outlay was greater, the coverage per £ was significantly greater. Pistol is 40/250 difluenican/glyphosate.