Best Way to Remove Weeds from Long Rural Driveway….

hearlady said:
@PeppermintPatty

Small batch but you can increase it:

Weed Killer
1 qt. White Vinegar
2 Tbsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Dawn Dish Detergent

Spray this on a hot sunny day. You may have to do more than once but it will kill the weeds for a long time.
Be careful where you spray because after a while nothing will grow there.
Click to expand...
THIS does work good but needs to be done so often. Lol. I think I’m looking for a magic cure. We can’t pave our driveway cause it’s too steep. Plus it would be too costly.

I’ll vinegar them, then buy more gravel along with some crushed gravel and pack it down by driving over it many times.

I guess like most things in life, one has to experiment.

thanks 🙏
 

Murrmurr said:
Ideally I’d like something that I could use on a Honda ATV . I have found rake like graters that you pull behind but does anyone know of something that attaches to the front?

There are little tillers for ATVs, and some do attach to the front.

View attachment 288358

And there's also these:

View attachment 288359

Depends how wide a swatch you need to clear.

In any case, after you till it, remove a couple inches depth of dirt, then level the ground with a rake and cover it all with sheets of black gardening plastic - Polyethylene Sheeting - so the weeds won't come back, and spread your gravel on that.
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But what happens when you plough the snow.? Wouldn’t that plastic sheet get exposed and torn up ?🤔
 

Alligatorob said:
I have tried several things, with mixed results.

  1. Glyphosate works best, but as you say it is a poison. It also kills most any plant you get it on, so you have to be careful.
  2. I have tried the fire thing, but I live in a desert where the risk of starting a wildfire is too great to do it often.
  3. One approach is to do nothing but mow the weeds, they don't hurt the driveway's ability to transport vehicles, and can stabilize the gravel a bit. Where I have done this snow plowing gets a bit easier, the gravel is less likely to get plowed if it has a good vegetative mat. Also goatheads are our most obnoxious weed, they grow back very quickly after killing or plowing, however if left alone the other weeds crowd them out a bit, so doing nothing actually reduces the worst weeds.
  4. Another version of #3 is to plant clover in the gravel. It will grow, and looks a bit better than weeds. Does a good job of crowding the goatheads out too.
  5. Finally parts of my driveway are road base rather than gravel. Weeds don't seem to grow as well in that as gravel.
I am doing some of all five right now. However this year I am doing more letting weeds grow and less glyphosate. I also seeded some clover a month or so ago, in parts of the driveway closer to my house.

Good luck with it, a never ending battle, unless you pave...
Click to expand...

Is Glyphosate (Roundup) Banned in the UK?​

October 5, 2022 / By Hannah Thornley / Free From
Tractor spraying herbicide on field

Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide worldwide, and is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s broad-spectrum weed control product Roundup.
It was also declared a potential health risk in 2015 when the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reported that the chemical is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Many research studies have further looked into the toxicity and health risks of glyphosate, causing the European Union to put a ban on the chemical that comes into effect on 15 December 2022.
But is glyphosate banned in the UK? Keep reading to find out.

Is Glyphosate Banned in the United Kingdom?​

Glyphosate is currently approved for use in Great Britain, as it is elsewhere in countries in the EU.
A UK ban on the chemical was set to come into effect on 15 December 2022, aligned with the decision from the European Commission.
However, with the UK leaving the EU following Brexit, Britain now makes its own regulatory decisions.
According to the Plant Protection Production Regulations 2019 as part of the EU exit strategy, all products set to expire under EU legislation are granted a three-year extension. Therefore, glyphosate can now legally be used until at least 15 December 2025.
After this date, legislation may change to ban Roundup and other glyphosate herbicides, but the chemical remains legal for now.
 
Those weeds are tough. It doesn’t take too many years before they’ve pushed through the plastic and are growing again.

How about just using a whipper snipper every couple of weeks. It’s probably less effort than all the other hand remedies. In the heat of the summer, they’ll also have slower growth.
 
Jules said:
Those weeds are tough. It doesn’t take too many years before they’ve pushed through the plastic and are growing again.
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There are different types and thicknesses, though. If you wanna grow plants over it, you should use the woven type if heat will hurt the roots. If it's for a gravel area, you wanna use heavy-duty plastic that's at least 6mil thick. Eco-friendly ones will break down over the years ...check the label.
 
Actually both of those weeds are fairly easy to pull out, probably due to the fact that they are growing in such little soil and mostly gravel/rocks.

Ideally I’m looking more for some type of attachment that I can use on the ATV.
I liked the front grater you showed Murrmurr but I found something maybe more suitable. It’s something that drags behind the ATV but I think it might work especially for the driveway only part. It’s an ATV chain harrow. They are sold at Princess Auto also


The areas around the house I will continue to use the vinegar, salt, dish soap method but like the above idea a lot. The Flame Weeder is a great idea but at the moment with all the fires, it’s probably not legal, rightfully so.
IMG_9868.jpegIMG_9870.jpegIMG_9871.jpeg
 
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hearlady said:
@PeppermintPatty

Small batch but you can increase it:

Weed Killer
1 qt. White Vinegar
2 Tbsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Dawn Dish Detergent

Spray this on a hot sunny day. You may have to do more than once but it will kill the weeds for a long time.
Be careful where you spray because after a while nothing will grow there.
Click to expand...
Well I just finished using this concoction....so we will see if it works for me....used white vinegar,salt, soap...but didn't have tsp measure so had to guess...may have overdone it...but should do something, immediatley came in and took a pain pill and sat down with heat pad LOL....will let u know.....:cool:
 
Oddly enough I’ve been out today pulling weeds. I’m pulling them because I have a walkway that turns into a driveway. That’s the area that I’m going to use @Naturally ’s idea of Chlorox Bleach and water just to disinfect the area. Our heat pump is in this area. I’ve got to use some liquid rubber paint to seal an area. Then I’m adding some fake brick moulding just to make it look nice. I’m going to top it with new gravel and then purchase that ATV rake to maintain it.

Other ideas closer to the house I’m going to put some landscape fabric down and add new gravel on top of that. I’m sticking with big huge terra cotta pots for adding some splashes of colour and ease of maintenance
Today I got 3 wheelbarrow full of weeds picked so I’m fully committed.

Thanks again for the ideas. They’ve been very helpful for these projects.
 
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Chet said:
It's a fact of life that weeds will win in the end. An elderly neighbor down the street could be seen almost daily pampering his property and it looked fabulous. After he died, the weeds rejoiced and took over.
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That’s actually very sad. Seeing older men fussing around with their garden always brings a smile to my face. I’ve also known properties of obsessed gardeners gone abandoned and full of weeds. It truly tugs at my heart strings.
 

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