Stoned back garden, weeds question.

[Shaky]

Hi. We moved into our first house with any sort of decent outside space a few years ago and we're trying to figure out how to keep on top of the weeds ! The back garden is a a low-maintenance setup consisting of black matting covered with varying depths of decorative white stones in varying depths between 1" & 2".

We had to weed it a few days ago and got 2 wheelie bins full ! The thing is, they always come back, even though we try our hardest to remove them right down to the roots or dig the thistles/dandelions up etc.

To slow the re-growth back, would it work to now completely drown the stoned area of the garden in weed killer (the roses and other odd plants are in tubs, separated from the ground so would be safe) and if this would work, could anyone suggest a decent, powerful weed killer ?

As you can see, we're totally inexperienced where gardening is concerned .

TIA.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

You don't really want to poison the earth, it will leach out to waterways and such where it is bad news for the environment. A weedkiller with glycophosphate in it will be absorbed through the leaves and it is biodegradable. If you spray at an early stage the weeds are more vulnerable and you won't have large dead plants left among your stones.
If it were me I would put the stones in nice piles, roll up the matting and throw it away, buy a hoe, and start a proper garden; but I realise different strokes for different folks.

 

[Shaky]

Thanks for the reply Oliver. So, if I've understood this right I should wait until the weeds start to grow back and then give them a good dowsing with weed killer ? Sorry but we really don't know much about gardening at all as you can probably guess. I would love to be able to "start again" with the garden but it's not an option at the moment as we've been completely reworking the house internals over the past couple of years and those renovations need to be done first so we can at least live in reasonable comfort.

We were just trying to think of a way we could keep on top of the weed situation before getting the rear garden sorted properly at a later stage. We want to keep it as is, with a stones topping as there is a front lawn with a flower bed that suffices for any colour etc.

Thanks again.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Yes, pretty much. I mis-spelled the chemical, it's glyphosphate, no 'co'. Common brands with it in are Roundup and Tumbleweed. You don't need to go mad, it is not cheap as chips, just get the leaf wet and it absorbs it. It kills right down to the root so those won't come back, though you might get some seedlings.. Try to do it when it is not going to rain for a bit, 6 or 8 hours should give it time to absorb.

 

[Shaky]

Thanks Oliver, much appreciated.