On 16/09/2010 20:22, Desireless wrote:
wrote in message
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wrote in message
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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.

I've had that same experience with glyphosate with weeds.

You are not using it right then. Grass is exquisitely sensitive to
glyphosate and that is the standard way to kill it. Takes 2-3 weeks for
full effect and if clearing rough ground you can torch the dry material
to get an additional weed seed kill.

A few things resist it notably waxy leaves like holly and ivy seedlings
and in my experience sometimes buttercup roots. Apart from that it kills
most green things it touches very effectively. Sometimes too effectively
causing collateral damage if there is any wind.

Thanks to all for the replies, unfortunately the grass
is growing in patches he

Work building
Path
Curb
(between these two)
Car Park

...so I can't mow it.

This time of year things are stopping growing so a quick blast with
glyphosate or sodium chlorate (now banned) is as good as it gets. Next
year at the start of the growing season try a persistant like PathClear
(nolonger as good as it once was). But it is total waste of time to
apply it now going into wet winter weather (and would be totally
irresponsible if it still contained simazine).

Regards,
Martin Brown