Growth through weed membrane in 3 weeks

Hi,

I recently had my back garden done over after it being a weed-infested mess for 15 years. A gardener removed all weeds and tree stumps, put down weed membrane, and 20mm gravel on top. The depth seems to be the recommended 50mm.

But, only 3 weeks from it being done, I am seeing grass (or tiny shoots? - they are only about an inch high at present, so difficult to tell) which is growing through the membrane and gravel. The growth is over about a third of my garden, and does not seem to be related to the joins in the membrane - it's through it as far as I can tell.

The gardener did do the bare soil over with weedkiller before laying the membrane, so I am a bit befuddled as to what is going on here. I know I can just do the whole garden over with Pathclear, but does anybody have any other thoughts/suggestions?

 

Putting weedkiller on bare soil wouldn't do anything, it needs to be applied to the actively growing plant and left for a few weeks.

Wait for a dry day and spray with Gyphosate

Welcome to Gardeners Corner BTW

 

Also, it would depend on the quality of the weed membrane as to how effective it would be.

Call your gardener back and explain that you are not satisfied that 3 weeks on this is happening.

 

Everyone has started cutting their grass lately and there is a fair bit of seed floating around. Basically I think that what you're seeing is from what has landed on top of the membrane.

 

Some times seeds will come in the stone/gravel
You will see plants growing in the bottom of Quarrys
Wheat and other seeds is found in type 1 gravel as some lorry drivers don't sweep out they trailors then load stone/gravel

 

Thank you all for your suggestions. The growth (so far) would appear to be a grass of some sort - none of it has put out any leaves or anything. I have bought some Pathclear and a sprayer and will give it a go with that. If this fails, I have some sodium chlorate.