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The weeds on my driveway have been a persistent nuisance for years. I have a block paving driveway and most of the time, each individual block is besieged by weeds, grass, moss or a mix of all three.
When the driveway is weed-free (a rare occurrence), it looks bright and inviting. However, when overrun by weeds, it's an unsightly mess that I dread coming home to.
Over the years, I've tried everything from laboriously scrubbing around several thousand bricks with a wire brush to filling in the gaps between the bricks with kiln-dried sand. I even tried vinegar and was just a mouse click away from purchasing a fancy gadget that incinerates weeds. But before resorting to that, I decided to try one last method.
I'm so pleased I did. Not only did this method take significantly less time than any other when I implemented it this summer, but it also kept the weeds at bay for weeks. And December is just as good a time to do it, as you'll keep the weeds away throughout winter and possibly even into spring.
Weeds have sprouted again on my driveway in the months since I tried this method in early summer, but it's been nothing like before when they'd always return with a vengeance. And let's face it, you simply can't eradicate weeds permanently. Here are the methods I attempted to rid my driveway of weeds before discovering the one that actually worked.
Wire brush
A high-quality weed wire brush did a splendid job of reaching into every crevice and tearing apart the weeds, which came away quite easily. However, it soon became evident that I wasn't eradicating the weeds at their roots and they'd quickly regrow. It was also strenuous work that took hours. I persisted and scrubbed every bit of my driveway. It looked brilliant for about a week. My back hadn't even recovered when the weeds made their unwelcome return.
On the second or third strenuous attempt with the wire brush, I realised I needed to take measures to prevent weeds from sprouting in the gaps between the bricks in the first place and was recommended to try setting sand.
Kiln-dried and setting sand
This is sand that you sweep into the cracks then lightly sprinkle with water so that it hardens like cement and prevents weeds from growing through. It sounded promising in theory. I'm not sure if I was doing it incorrectly but it didn't pan out in practice.
It quickly became apparent that I would need a substantial amount of it to cover all of my modest driveway. But much worse than that was when I sprinkled water over a small test area of about ten square feet, it also set over the bricks themselves, giving them a ghastly dull grey hue. They looked dirty and dreadful.
I also utilised kiln-dried sand, a fine, dry sand that fills the gaps and is designed to create a robust, interlocking structure that deters weed growth. It appeared far superior to the setting sand I'd previously used, but it didn't halt the weed' invasion.
Weed killer
It became glaringly apparent rather quickly that this method would be incredibly inefficient, time-consuming and ultimately futile. After purchasing a bottle of weed killer and beginning to spray each individual weed by hand, I realised that I would need several bottles and hours of time to complete the task. The spray did exterminate the weeds it came into contact with, but it wasn't the right solution for my predicament.
Bleach
I was extremely reluctant about using bleach to eradicate weeds, primarily due to concerns about potential negative environmental impacts. The internet is awash with warnings about employing bleach as a weed killer, mainly because of its detrimental effects on nearby soil. This wasn't a concern for me as I was applying it on a driveway with no soil in close proximity.
However, I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of pouring litres upon litres of bleach all over the ground. Another significant reason for this was its efficiency. I would require a vast quantity of bleach to cover the area. I also fretted about how I'd rinse off the bleach once it had killed the weeds. And, given that the advice from online gardeners was that bleach does kill surface weeds but doesn't destroy the roots, it seemed like it would be mostly a wasted effort anyway.
Vinegar, lemon juice and boiling water
I didn't put these techniques to the test myself because my colleagues had already done the legwork. They trialled four natural methods of tackling weeds with mixed results. Phoebe Cornish used vinegar on weeds and reported "the weeds looked colourless and shrivelled within a few hours of soaking them in the vinegar solution".
She continued: "And when I checked back the following morning, I was truly impressed with the effectiveness of this gardening hack. It's a great way to flatten and weaken weeds before pulling them out of the ground, but it doesn't replace the need to dig out the roots to prevent them from growing back."
A colleague tried lemon juice but found it completely ineffective, noting: "If anything, the weeds seemed to have grown 24 hours later."
And I can't fathom how you'd source sufficient lemon juice to tackle weeds across a substantial area. You'd require your own lemon grove.
Boiling water was another approach tested and, whilst she instantly "saw the dandelion leaves and flower wilt dramatically", the weed persisted 24 hours on because the root remained intact.
The best method: salt
I'd heard plenty about salt being effective for eliminating weeds but what convinced me was a neighbour reporting she'd witnessed remarkable results. Not only did it destroy weeds, she explained, but it also prevented them returning.
As a gardener with an immaculately-maintained property front and rear, she was somebody I trusted to take advice from. She wasn't alone in championing salt as a solution: "Salt really does make a great weed killer as it will kill just about anything that grows," National Garden Bureau member and Laidback Gardener, Larry Hodgson, told Homes and Gardens, although he cautioned: "But [it's] so toxic it simply can't be recommended in most garden settings."
Salt doesn't merely destroy the foliage when sprayed but also devastates the root system if watered into the ground. Across various websites, commenters claimed salt "essentially sterilises" the earth "preventing vegetative re-growth".
Another user warned: "If you salt the soil, no plant will ever grow there again."
This seemed brilliant to me, so I decided to give it a go. I purchased 20kg of rock salt from Amazon and already owned a pressure sprayer with a substantial capacity of at least 10 litres (you can see an example here).
My initial approach involved adding a considerable quantity of the rock salt into the sprayer, followed by several litres of warm water. I mixed it with a large piece of wood to dissolve the salt as thoroughly as possible, then started spraying the weeds.
Similar to numerous methods mentioned earlier, I soon discovered this would require considerable time (although it proved far more efficient than individually treating weeds with weed killer from a handheld bottle). So, I opted to remove the lid from the pressure sprayer and dispersed the salt water mixture over as broad an area as possible.
With just a handful of refills of my sizeable pressure sprayer, I managed to cover the entire driveway in no time. I added extra scoops of rock salt to particularly weed-infested areas.
Within a matter of hours, the weeds were withered and appeared decidedly dead. Granted, large sections of my drive were now strewn with mounds of rock salt and white residue left by the salt water. I simply rinsed this off a few days later using a power washer (a garden hose would do the trick too). Most crucially, the weeds were undeniably dead. And my driveway remained largely weed-free for weeks afterwards.
Although more weeds have sprouted in the six months or so since I did it, this is unavoidable -- nothing keeps weeds at bay permanently without significant groundwork.
You obviously wouldn't want to use the salt method in a garden where you aim to eradicate weeds but preserve other plants and flowers, as the salt would obliterate everything. But for a patio or driveway, it could be just the solution you're after.
My colleague, Angela, experienced similar results with salt. Upon testing salt as a weed killer, she remarked: "Nine hours later, the weeds were completely dead, so I was easily able to dig them out. I didn't use a fancy tool for this; a regular screwdriver sufficed. Curious as to whether the weeds would reappear, I checked back in on the area over the next two weeks, and no weeds seemed to have grown back."
Is December a good time to weed?
You might believe there's never an ideal time for weeding. However, winter is beneficial because the weeds won't regrow at the rate they do in spring, meaning weeding now could leave your garden weed-free until spring.
It could also help curb more rapid weed growth when spring arrives. The Sunday Gardener blogger also suggests that the ground yields the weeds more easily in winter.
The experts at Lawn Experts advise: "Once the summer months are over and the frosts begin to take hold then is the time when you should be most active in keeping down weeds. There is normally lots of rain in December so take advantage of this where you can; rain loosens up the soil underneath the grass and allows for the pulling free of weeds where possible."