"Jake" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:50:47 +0100, "Desireless"
wrote:

Also doing some gardening at my workplace, which has become overrun
with weeds and such. The weeds themselves are easy to deal with, but along
several
long stretches of road/curb are patches of grass I'd like to remove, grows
back VERY
quickly. Nothing dangerous is allowed, for example someone told me diesel
would
do the trick heh.


Depends what you want to do afterwards. Glyphosate will kill virtually
anything green it touches but you can replant the area soon after
application. Equally, anything else can grow fairly soon - bare soil
will quickly be colonised by weeds.

For a longer effect, Pathclear is an option but I've found longer
lasting results with Bayer's Groundclear and Path Weedkiller products
which can effectively stop anything growing for 4-6 months.

If you've got a large area that you want to keep clear, you could
scrape the surface down by a couple of inches, then lay some of that
permeable membrane stuff you buy on rolls (or usually more cheaply cut
off a large roll in a DIY place rather than a garden centre) and then
lay a couple of inches of decorative gravel over the top. This looks a
lot better than bare earth, will be less easy for weeds to colonise
and can be kept tidy with a spray of Pathclear/Groundclear type stuff
each spring.

If you want to replant, adapt the membrane idea - dig the soil over a
bit, lay the membrane a couple of inches lower than the level you
want, cut through it to plant something and then cover over with a
mulch of either gravel or bark chips.

Jake

Pathclear at least used to be Atrazine/Simazine, both of which got into the
water supply and were supposed to have been banned.

I have spent a fortune on glyphosate trying to kill Japanese Anemones and
evergreen alkanet: it is totally useless. All it does is turn green weeds
brown and then they gradually turn back green again, so you are better off
just mowing.

S