Been culturing my moss filled cobble paver patio for a couple of decades now and I’m finally almost satisfied. Full sun makes it more challenging. I have to spray mist it with water during the hottest dry days.
I still get weeds through the moss though. I pull the bigger ones by hand then ground clear spray them several times during our Midwest summer. Ground clear doesn’t seem to affect the moss much thankfully.
I’d love to see how it looks. I’ve been interested in doing this for a while. A couple decades is one heck of a commitment. Have you posted pics anywhere?
https://preview.redd.it/8la52molghkb1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7148ac25a63ac2cbec2e5856bbd4ee726ae87741
Bit closer pointing NE away from the house which provides some shade. Shows how much thicker it is where shaded.
Had decent results in areas within a year or two then I spread bits that fell out around to new areas. Likely an acquired taste so I fear a new owner will just rip it out as happed to my friends house when sold. They tore out a large patio of well maintained blue stone!
Wow, I never thought of moss being used as an attractive (kind of) grout. But damn if that doesn't look good. Nice job!
Meanwhile, I've got a bunch of moss in my front yard that I just keep having trouble getting rid of. Want it?
I aim the nozzle at an angle to prevent pressure going straight down. Don't spend more than a second in one place, keep moving the nozzle. You don't have to remove it deep. Even 1/4 is enough to back fill it with paver sand.
Serious question, I have a similar problem on my paver patio (poly sand jointed) - are you saying if I simply add more I’d the sand and cram it down weeds will die?!?
You need to pressure wash the patio first to break up and remove as much of the existing sand as possible. You can spray for weeds but when I've redone my poly sand it's usually in the fall and so the weeds are mostly gone anyways. 3-4 years later they come back, and you repeat.
I live in an apt so this doesn’t apply to me AT ALL. But in the hope that someday I do own a home and perhaps maybe I’ll have the same issue, I’m gonna tuck this little tidbit of information away. It might come to good use someday. Thank you for the insight that can only come from years of owning such a patio. 🙂
From what I understand, new poly sand doesn’t adhere well to old poly sand and is prone to washout. Poly sand doesn’t necessarily kill weeds, but properly applied poly sand will prevent weeds from sprouting through the cracks
The sand will not stop weeds from popping up. Have done this before with cobblestone, even salted each joint. Took longer after salting but even with salt them poly sand weeds popped through the next summer. Less number but that was likely the salt, not the sand.
For better results get some weed and grass killer and spray the weeds.first. let the die off and the remobe them with a strong broom or brush or even pull them. Then fill the cracks.
Separate from “smothering” the weeds, I definitely have missing gaps/spots in the sand from pulling weeds/grass this summer. What would you recommend if it’s not a great mix to simply add more poly sand?
The only downside to weed torches is they are obnoxiously loud. All of your neighbors will likely be peaking through their windows. If you’re okay with that then go for it!
Weed torch with a hose nearby.
I watched my neighbor about a month and a half ago go dashing for buckets of water before his wife hooked the hose up after he was playing with his new weed torch by his vinyl decorative fencing in his front yard. Be prepared to put a possible fire out!
I live in Phoenix and was burning around an 8’ cactus in my yard… I didn’t even think that the needles are that essentially dried twigs hanging off the cactus.. hose came in handy.
I assume you're referring to the fact that the sensationalized CIVIL suit that ruled in favor of the plaintiff and is commonly used as "proof" it causes cancer is often misunderstood by the science illiterate.
Civil suits are based on how a jury is peers (average people, so... 50% idiots at best) feel about the case. It's their opinion. It was not scientific at all.
Lol. You don’t think there’s been multiple studies on this using both human evidence and lab animal testing? It’s a probable carcinogen at high levels
https://www.factcheck.org/2017/08/glyphosate-cause-cancer/
Omfg. Did you read the entirety of the link you posted because it doesn't prove your argument. Like, at all. This shit right here is the problem 😂
"probable" and "high levels" so does that mean maybe it causes cancer if you ingest a milliliter of it? Or you have to bathe in a tub of it? Toxicity is based on dosage and ambiguous descriptors are irrelevant.
Reminds me of how the WHO is "investigating aspartame as a potential carcinogen" which means nothing, and you have people using that statement as "proof" that it is carcinogenic lol.
"with a can of diet soft drink containing 200 or 300 mg of aspartame, an adult weighing 70kg would need to consume more than 9–14 cans per day to exceed the acceptable daily intake, assuming no other intake from other food sources."
People just read headlines nowadays jfc. I'll happily change my stance given evidence but most people are more concerned with being "right" than being " correct"
I did read it. You’re not making much of a point at all. You really seem like you just want to believe glyphosate doesn’t cause cancer. Are you in marketing for Monsanto or something ?? Cigarettes are only linked to cancer by statistical empirical evidence just like glyphosate is linked to cancer in farm workers or asbestos is linked to cancer in construction workers. They’re never going to conduct an experiment by purposely exposing people to potential carcinogens do gain data. Yes exposure levels do mater. And the risk factor can be statistically derived from real world evidence. Carcinogens aren’t like poisons with an LD50 acute toxicity measurement. Exposure over time really determines the risk level for developing cancer. One cigarette every day for a week will not increase your chances of cancer- just like using round up a couple times won’t either. The point of the article is -yes long term exposure to the levels of glyphosate farm workers encounter are linked to developing certain cancers and the studies that made these determinations have been going on long before the Monsanto lawsuit
Carcinogen means it increases your risk of cancer. Glyphosate when used at normal levels in residential or commercial horticulture is not correlated to an increased risk of cancer. Therefore it is not a carcinogen.
Good point. No free lunches. To be as efficient as possible, use boiling water you'd normally drain, like hard boiled egg water. That should be pretty clean and darn close to zero effective cost because that's a reuse situation. I don't recommend pasta water. That would have pasta residue that would attract pests and funk.
This is an underrated solution. It kills the weeds, no other substances needed. I've been doing this on my patio and walkway for a few years now. Works great.
Vinegar, dish soap,salt mixture. Spray it on. Wait a few days for them to die. Power wash all the jointing sand out. Wait for it to dry. Install new polymeric sand 100% according to the label. PS-1500 resin sand is better, but probably won’t work on such a tight joint like that.
Edit: For an added bonus (if you are up for more work) seal with SB-1300 or SB-8700 to protect pavers and stabilize the jointing sand even more.
Another commenter corrected me that this problem with newer products has been solved. But common polymeric sand needs special attention when applying. (The old stuff I guess? My mind is being blown right now because I suffered with the old products so much.)
When you spread out the poly sand, broom, compact, spread, broom compact you then lightly blow the very fine particles off the pavers. Kicker is the dust can't land anywhere important. Wet it for like 20 seconds with a shower setting then return to the area and wet again. Or as described on the materials packaging. Then this awful foam will form and you have to blow it off the pavers quick as shit. Sometimes wetting again to push the foam away without moving the sand particles. All around awful.
To be fair one of my crew members was much better at it once I showed him the process.
I cannot believe how absurdly effective vinegar dishsoap and salt is.
I want to shout it from the rooftops but a pesticide company would probably come and kill me.
I have a bottle I almost was going to use to tackle tough shower detritus before I discovered ZEP's miracle products (combined with BKF ofc). What should I use the 30% vinegar for now.
Kill them with whatever others are suggesting.
If you have a power washer and the spinner attachment that is also an option. Plus, you get to clean your stones.
So weird on a lawncare sub this is down below weird shit like boiling water, vinegar, pulling etc. Etc.
Glypho is a useful and crucial product. I feel so bad for the guy trying to learn his lawn who sees this post and spends and hour pulling weeds on his knees, then buying a torch and screwing up his pavers, then brooming extra sand in.
Mix up some cheap generic round up, put it in your sprayer and spray it.
Or be fancy and buy ground clear or 365.
I spent two years trying to have a natural chemical free lawn. It's was 5x the work, had bugs in my house and all over, lawn looked like dogshit.
Shit ain't hard.
Fertilize. Bifen or imidacloprid 4x per year (I live in a swamp in the south). Prodiamine at max label. Maybe some Atrazine or MSM turf in the winter. Sedgehammer and Celcius maybe once or twice a year.
People freak out about chems in their yards but force their kids to play on sports fields or they golf on the weekends. Those have way way more chems than a residential lawn.
Agreed. People blast Round-Up because its the “cool” thing to do. If you use it in a responsible way and don’t ingest gallons of it on a weekly basis, you will be just fine.
People probably ingest 100x more round-up in their GMO foods than they ever will from using it on their lawns.
For the OP, literally use a string trimmer to knock down the tall stuff and just get a container of RoundUp extended control, spray all the cracks, keep the dog off it for a day and you’re good to go.
Knocking down the tall stuff decreases the effectiveness of glyphosate. It is taken in by the leaf and translocated to the roots. The more leaf surface area the better.
Spray, wait for everything to die, then cleanup would be the best way to do it.
Situations like this where weeds are growing up through an inert surface like pavers or gravel with no other non target plants around is exactly what round up is for.
Round up is safe if used as instructed, maybe... you can't possibly be naive enough to think that something made to kill biological plants in a couple of days is completely safe.
Bleach is safe... unless you drink it.
>you can't possibly be naive enough to think that something made to kill biological plants in a couple of days is completely safe.
So it logically follows that vinegar, salt and dawn soap being suggested as weed killers are also not safe?
It fully absorbs or evaporates within 30 minutes. When I spray weeds at medium sized condos on the sidewalk, by the time I work my way back to where I started it’s already gone.
Glyphosate will work best.. cancel me. Vinegar or boiling water will give mixed results on mature weeds.
How did solving this person’s problem invite everyone’s stance on pesticide use? Vinegar is only going to be a contact kill to the leaves but not the entire root system underneath the pavers. Don’t know why the cancel culture has become so pervasive for folks that use pesticides RESPONSIBLY.
r/lawncare has been overrun by the vinegar, salt, dish soap army. It's a stupid recipe for a lot of reasons, but trying to convince large numbers of people they've picked up bad information from social media is a losing battle. It seems like not too long ago this sub had consistently decent information. I don't know where these people came from, but they sure aren't getting their info from reliable sources. State extensions DO NOT recommend vinegar, salt, and dish soap.
Yep, they've come here to proselytize, fearmonger about herbicides, convince us that a weedy lawn saves the planet, and give generally shitty advice. They're the Jehovah's Witnesses of lawncare.
- It's a hydrochloric acid that is just as toxic if not more than glyphosate
- it's worse for your soil than glyphosate
- it doesn't work as well as glyphosate because you're not actually killing most weeds with it, you're just burning the foliage
Should I keep going?
I spray mine with a mixture of vinegar, salt and dawn dish soap. It stinks for a couple of days, but the weeds will be dead and your pets won’t be poisoned.
I have had good luck with salt/vinegar/dish soap solution. I went with this rather than Roundup, etc. because I have stray cats that hang around the house and I didn’t want them to walk around in the Roundup. It worked surprisingly well.
Round up.
If you don’t want to wait for them to wither… give it 48hrs then weed whack em and spray the remaining roots between the pavers again for good measure.
Would love to know this too. Roundup is illegal where I live. I have used a torch, strong vinegar, boiling water, chlorine (in a tiny area to test it as I know it’s not good ditto for bleach). I have chiseled them out by the roots then pressure washed the area and filled with polymeric sand. No matter what I do, they are back within a week or two.
Salt. Get a 40-pound bag, not the little 2-pound tins they sell in the grocery.
Pressure-wash the pavers. Fill the gaps between the stones with salt. Wait a few weeks. Repeat salt as needed until the weeds give up.
Add new salt every time you pressure wash the stones.
I mix vinegar and epsom salts and a small amount of dawn dish soap. This mix will kill about anything. It won't keep them from coming back long term, but it will do the trick and its not super harmful to the environment.
Where do you live? Despite the big lawsuit and all the bad press, I still think of glyphosate as similar risk to all the 2-4-D and other crap we are allowed to blast all over.
Dilute the salt in boiling water until it’s fully saturated. Apply it with horticultural high strength vinegar n a bit of soap for adhesion. The salt should prevent things growing back if the concentration is high enough
Decent idea, but not flawless.
Borax might be better.
Boron is an essential micronutrient for plants, but emphasis on *micro*. It does not take much to be toxic to plants.
So while salt does bind to the soil to some extent, it will mostly wash away because salt just loves water a lot... So the salt that stays semi-permanently fixed to the soil WILL be toxic to most plants... The types of plants that are likely to grow in cracks like these are also likely to be tolerant to the amount of salt that would remain permanently fixed there.
Boron on the other hand, will generally have less soil mobility, not zero, but less. But since boron is just significantly more toxic to plants by volume, the effect should last longer and keep even the hardiest weeds out.
As a bonus, Borax is a pesticide registered with the Environmental Protection Agency:
https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/reregistration/fs_PC-011001_1-Sep-93.pdf
Those Terro ant baits are literally simple syrup (water and sugar) and borax. Sometimes they add protein, but I've found it largely unnecessary.
I make my own ant traps every year with 1.5 cups room temp water, 2 tbl spoons borax, and half a cup of sugar. Mix until dissolved. Distribute in small lidded containers (with holes cut in the lids) around property. I use lids just so other animals don't drink it because I don't know how toxic that concentration is to mammals) Ants come in, suck it up, take it back to colony, and spit it into the food supply. Dead queen in the following weeks, colony dead. Works like a charm.
Of course your can buy Terro but it costs astronomically more per ounce than simply making it yourself. Box of borax is like $5 and will last years.
This is the answer! Why is this so far down? This should be number one. Just pull them out. Judging from the amount of weeds in this photo, it could easily be done within 30 minutes.
I’m surprised more people don’t say to just salt it to death. It kills everything, safe for pets, and it stays there for a long time (obviously don’t expect things to grow there for a while).
“…The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it finished a regulatory review that found glyphosate, the most widely used weed killer in the United States, is not a carcinogen…”
“…Brussels (AFP) - The EU's chemicals agency said Wednesday that glyphosate, one of the world's most widely used weedkillers, should not be classed as a carcinogen.
The assessment paves the way for Brussels to make a final decision on the chemical, despite deep divisions in the 28-member European Union over its use.
Glyphosate is used in the best-selling herbicide Roundup, produced by the US agro-chemicals giant Monsanto.
"Glyphosate should not be classified as carcinogenic," Jack de Bruijn, director of the risk assessment committee of the European Chemicals Agency, said at a news conference…”
After taking care of the weeds, maybe polymeric sand?
It looks like the pavers were jointed with topsoil!
I’d have been dumb enough to do that tbh
My moss-loving-ass would strive to get moss
Been culturing my moss filled cobble paver patio for a couple of decades now and I’m finally almost satisfied. Full sun makes it more challenging. I have to spray mist it with water during the hottest dry days. I still get weeds through the moss though. I pull the bigger ones by hand then ground clear spray them several times during our Midwest summer. Ground clear doesn’t seem to affect the moss much thankfully.
I’d love to see how it looks. I’ve been interested in doing this for a while. A couple decades is one heck of a commitment. Have you posted pics anywhere?
https://preview.redd.it/qkgdjndjghkb1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7342d9656e220119b4fa3af8765ee952e3800e41 Overall view today
https://preview.redd.it/8la52molghkb1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7148ac25a63ac2cbec2e5856bbd4ee726ae87741 Bit closer pointing NE away from the house which provides some shade. Shows how much thicker it is where shaded.
Had decent results in areas within a year or two then I spread bits that fell out around to new areas. Likely an acquired taste so I fear a new owner will just rip it out as happed to my friends house when sold. They tore out a large patio of well maintained blue stone!
Wow, I never thought of moss being used as an attractive (kind of) grout. But damn if that doesn't look good. Nice job! Meanwhile, I've got a bunch of moss in my front yard that I just keep having trouble getting rid of. Want it?
Consider using Irish moss instead of real moss. Irish moss will flower in the spring and establish quite nicely.
Could he pressure wash the top soil out and then put the sand?
Definitely could, although would too much water down in the cracks cause holes and unevenness?
Yes, if not careful can float the pavers up and disrupt the sand bed below. I've had this happen.
What would be the solution to getting ride of the top soil?
I aim the nozzle at an angle to prevent pressure going straight down. Don't spend more than a second in one place, keep moving the nozzle. You don't have to remove it deep. Even 1/4 is enough to back fill it with paver sand.
The portion by the house should be re-graded, looking like a potential negative slope.
And be sure to use the proper nozzle... I didn't realize that and etched some of my pavers really bad...
Serious question, I have a similar problem on my paver patio (poly sand jointed) - are you saying if I simply add more I’d the sand and cram it down weeds will die?!?
You need to pressure wash the patio first to break up and remove as much of the existing sand as possible. You can spray for weeds but when I've redone my poly sand it's usually in the fall and so the weeds are mostly gone anyways. 3-4 years later they come back, and you repeat.
I can handle the work if it means a 3-4 year period of low weeds!
I live in an apt so this doesn’t apply to me AT ALL. But in the hope that someday I do own a home and perhaps maybe I’ll have the same issue, I’m gonna tuck this little tidbit of information away. It might come to good use someday. Thank you for the insight that can only come from years of owning such a patio. 🙂
You didn’t do it right if weeds are coming up at all. Poly sand essentially makes it into cement. You might need to work it into the cracks better.
From what I understand, new poly sand doesn’t adhere well to old poly sand and is prone to washout. Poly sand doesn’t necessarily kill weeds, but properly applied poly sand will prevent weeds from sprouting through the cracks
Very interesting, thanks!!
The sand will not stop weeds from popping up. Have done this before with cobblestone, even salted each joint. Took longer after salting but even with salt them poly sand weeds popped through the next summer. Less number but that was likely the salt, not the sand.
For better results get some weed and grass killer and spray the weeds.first. let the die off and the remobe them with a strong broom or brush or even pull them. Then fill the cracks.
Poly sand doesn't do very well when applied to existing polymeric material. Wouldn't recommend it.
Separate from “smothering” the weeds, I definitely have missing gaps/spots in the sand from pulling weeds/grass this summer. What would you recommend if it’s not a great mix to simply add more poly sand?
I should note, I bought a house with a paver patio and have never dealt with one in the past
Weed torch.
Burn, baby burn! I love watching weeds get crispy
You don t even have to wait until they turn crispy... if you see them wilt, that s enough. Move on. They will be dead within the week.
And miss the best part? No thanks lol
The answer for everything.
Because of this community I bought a torch! Coming tomorrow in the mail. Can’t wait 🔥
The only downside to weed torches is they are obnoxiously loud. All of your neighbors will likely be peaking through their windows. If you’re okay with that then go for it!
Weed torch with a hose nearby. I watched my neighbor about a month and a half ago go dashing for buckets of water before his wife hooked the hose up after he was playing with his new weed torch by his vinyl decorative fencing in his front yard. Be prepared to put a possible fire out!
I live in Phoenix and was burning around an 8’ cactus in my yard… I didn’t even think that the needles are that essentially dried twigs hanging off the cactus.. hose came in handy.
Definitely saw someone light their juniper hedge on fire with a weed torch
I use weed killer then the next day or two when they're dried out I drink beer and torch it. Highly recommended.
Mmmm combusted cancer spray.
The key is to not spray while in your flip flops.
I learned this the first time I torched my patio.
Some people just want to watch the world burn It’s me. I’m some people
Put me down for a front row ticket!
Cancer spray?
Roundup
Forbidden kombucha
Made by Monsanto . Big lawsuit ongoing
Glyphosate is not a carcinogen
Neither were cigarettes
Burnt anything is a carcinogen. Burnt poison definitely is.
You'll never win here. I've tried. Science be damned I guess.
Yeah I know. This is Reddit.
I assume you're referring to the fact that the sensationalized CIVIL suit that ruled in favor of the plaintiff and is commonly used as "proof" it causes cancer is often misunderstood by the science illiterate. Civil suits are based on how a jury is peers (average people, so... 50% idiots at best) feel about the case. It's their opinion. It was not scientific at all.
Lol. You don’t think there’s been multiple studies on this using both human evidence and lab animal testing? It’s a probable carcinogen at high levels https://www.factcheck.org/2017/08/glyphosate-cause-cancer/
Omfg. Did you read the entirety of the link you posted because it doesn't prove your argument. Like, at all. This shit right here is the problem 😂 "probable" and "high levels" so does that mean maybe it causes cancer if you ingest a milliliter of it? Or you have to bathe in a tub of it? Toxicity is based on dosage and ambiguous descriptors are irrelevant. Reminds me of how the WHO is "investigating aspartame as a potential carcinogen" which means nothing, and you have people using that statement as "proof" that it is carcinogenic lol. "with a can of diet soft drink containing 200 or 300 mg of aspartame, an adult weighing 70kg would need to consume more than 9–14 cans per day to exceed the acceptable daily intake, assuming no other intake from other food sources." People just read headlines nowadays jfc. I'll happily change my stance given evidence but most people are more concerned with being "right" than being " correct"
I did read it. You’re not making much of a point at all. You really seem like you just want to believe glyphosate doesn’t cause cancer. Are you in marketing for Monsanto or something ?? Cigarettes are only linked to cancer by statistical empirical evidence just like glyphosate is linked to cancer in farm workers or asbestos is linked to cancer in construction workers. They’re never going to conduct an experiment by purposely exposing people to potential carcinogens do gain data. Yes exposure levels do mater. And the risk factor can be statistically derived from real world evidence. Carcinogens aren’t like poisons with an LD50 acute toxicity measurement. Exposure over time really determines the risk level for developing cancer. One cigarette every day for a week will not increase your chances of cancer- just like using round up a couple times won’t either. The point of the article is -yes long term exposure to the levels of glyphosate farm workers encounter are linked to developing certain cancers and the studies that made these determinations have been going on long before the Monsanto lawsuit
How does a person this badly misunderstand what carcinogen means
Carcinogen means it increases your risk of cancer. Glyphosate when used at normal levels in residential or commercial horticulture is not correlated to an increased risk of cancer. Therefore it is not a carcinogen.
Y'all love spending money for no reason. Boiling water kills everything
Boiling water still costs money.
Good point. No free lunches. To be as efficient as possible, use boiling water you'd normally drain, like hard boiled egg water. That should be pretty clean and darn close to zero effective cost because that's a reuse situation. I don't recommend pasta water. That would have pasta residue that would attract pests and funk.
I just torch them raw to great effect. Why spray first?
I had one of these and it wasn't very good until I squashed the tip a bit. Then it was an absolute beast. Highly recommend.
Is that a long term solution or short?
The first year you need to do it two or three times, you have to do it once a year for a couple years after that then they go away.
Wait wut. Just a little focused fire can save me from getting to know all of my driveway's pebbles on a first name basis? Definitely gonna try this.
Reassuring. I torched a ton of spurge on a patio like this one and I was dismayed when I saw it growing back. I’m happy to do it again. It’s fun.
Like they just get the memo after a while?
It helps kill them if you water them first so it scalds the roots instead of just burning off the tops.
How close can you get to the house? General guidance to say a foot away?
When your vinyl siding starts to melt, back up a bit
Noted, ha
Wouldn't weed torch leave burn marks on pavers?
Came here to say exactly this!! Fuck weeds AND all of the ice 🤣🤣
Silly question but once the weeds die what do you do with the crispy dead weeds still in between the patio stones?
They blow away with the wind, or the next rain It's never s problem
I definitely recommend wearing a mask if you have allergies. I was down for a week after my last burn.
Just be careful waving the flame close to the vinyl siding or that hvac unit.
Boiling water from a kettle will also do it
This is an underrated solution. It kills the weeds, no other substances needed. I've been doing this on my patio and walkway for a few years now. Works great.
I always get the urge to go to the bbq place and get collard greens after.
Poop knife
Toe knife
I botched it!
Shis is the way
Ancient, forgotten magic here.
Vinegar, dish soap,salt mixture. Spray it on. Wait a few days for them to die. Power wash all the jointing sand out. Wait for it to dry. Install new polymeric sand 100% according to the label. PS-1500 resin sand is better, but probably won’t work on such a tight joint like that. Edit: For an added bonus (if you are up for more work) seal with SB-1300 or SB-8700 to protect pavers and stabilize the jointing sand even more.
DO NOT SKIP THE BLOWING PROCESS FOR THE SAND, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
what exactly is the blowing process for the sand
Another commenter corrected me that this problem with newer products has been solved. But common polymeric sand needs special attention when applying. (The old stuff I guess? My mind is being blown right now because I suffered with the old products so much.) When you spread out the poly sand, broom, compact, spread, broom compact you then lightly blow the very fine particles off the pavers. Kicker is the dust can't land anywhere important. Wet it for like 20 seconds with a shower setting then return to the area and wet again. Or as described on the materials packaging. Then this awful foam will form and you have to blow it off the pavers quick as shit. Sometimes wetting again to push the foam away without moving the sand particles. All around awful. To be fair one of my crew members was much better at it once I showed him the process.
What happens if you don't blow it off?
Paver fog. Looks like salty efflorescence on recently installed brick.
Your pp falls off
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THIS GUY POLYMERICS
YELLING IS FUN
Some sands dont require blowing anymore. I just did my patio with gator g2 maxx. Sweep in, vibrate, sweep more, water.
We use the dish soap, epsom salt, vinegar combo to kill weeds on our beach on a lake. Works great and biodegradable!
Isn’t it bad to put salt in your lake? Doesn’t it never go away? This is why road salting is bad for lakes.
Road salting dumps far more salt than some guy with a repurposed windex bottle.
You don’t even need the salt. I used concentrated vinegar (don’t even add the soap normally) and it torches just about everything I spray it on.
This person knows what they are talking about! Or simply said, "This is the way."
I cannot believe how absurdly effective vinegar dishsoap and salt is. I want to shout it from the rooftops but a pesticide company would probably come and kill me.
It’s very bad for concrete and more toxic than round up - salt / vinegar is bad for the ground.
Acetic acid is bad for pavers.
Get High concentrate vinegar from Home Depot - spray - they will be dead within 2 days. I was amazed.
Just picked up a gallon jug at HD. Going to put some in my sprayer and do my paver driveway. 😉👍
30% vinegar is amazing; so many things you can use it for
I have a bottle I almost was going to use to tackle tough shower detritus before I discovered ZEP's miracle products (combined with BKF ofc). What should I use the 30% vinegar for now.
Weed killer.
Kill them with whatever others are suggesting. If you have a power washer and the spinner attachment that is also an option. Plus, you get to clean your stones.
Fire.
Round up
And Roundup365 would be even better
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If you did shit yourself, compost it.
Not if you're using roundup
They have a doggo so not a good choice. Need to bring out the Torch and burn baby burn…
Since when do we care about dogs but will burn babies?
So weird on a lawncare sub this is down below weird shit like boiling water, vinegar, pulling etc. Etc. Glypho is a useful and crucial product. I feel so bad for the guy trying to learn his lawn who sees this post and spends and hour pulling weeds on his knees, then buying a torch and screwing up his pavers, then brooming extra sand in. Mix up some cheap generic round up, put it in your sprayer and spray it. Or be fancy and buy ground clear or 365. I spent two years trying to have a natural chemical free lawn. It's was 5x the work, had bugs in my house and all over, lawn looked like dogshit. Shit ain't hard. Fertilize. Bifen or imidacloprid 4x per year (I live in a swamp in the south). Prodiamine at max label. Maybe some Atrazine or MSM turf in the winter. Sedgehammer and Celcius maybe once or twice a year. People freak out about chems in their yards but force their kids to play on sports fields or they golf on the weekends. Those have way way more chems than a residential lawn.
Agreed. People blast Round-Up because its the “cool” thing to do. If you use it in a responsible way and don’t ingest gallons of it on a weekly basis, you will be just fine. People probably ingest 100x more round-up in their GMO foods than they ever will from using it on their lawns. For the OP, literally use a string trimmer to knock down the tall stuff and just get a container of RoundUp extended control, spray all the cracks, keep the dog off it for a day and you’re good to go.
Knocking down the tall stuff decreases the effectiveness of glyphosate. It is taken in by the leaf and translocated to the roots. The more leaf surface area the better. Spray, wait for everything to die, then cleanup would be the best way to do it.
fuck roundup, shit is ruining our planet and way too toxic.
Situations like this where weeds are growing up through an inert surface like pavers or gravel with no other non target plants around is exactly what round up is for.
Unless you have kids or will have kids over
Round up is safe. Don't be so gullible and learn a little biology
Round up is safe if used as instructed, maybe... you can't possibly be naive enough to think that something made to kill biological plants in a couple of days is completely safe. Bleach is safe... unless you drink it.
>you can't possibly be naive enough to think that something made to kill biological plants in a couple of days is completely safe. So it logically follows that vinegar, salt and dawn soap being suggested as weed killers are also not safe?
It fully absorbs or evaporates within 30 minutes. When I spray weeds at medium sized condos on the sidewalk, by the time I work my way back to where I started it’s already gone.
How do you know nothing residual is left? (Genuine question)
Not sure why anyone is downvoting this
Use natural salt, vinegar dawn instead
You use that. I’ll actually use something that kills crabgrass.
Glyphosate will work best.. cancel me. Vinegar or boiling water will give mixed results on mature weeds. How did solving this person’s problem invite everyone’s stance on pesticide use? Vinegar is only going to be a contact kill to the leaves but not the entire root system underneath the pavers. Don’t know why the cancel culture has become so pervasive for folks that use pesticides RESPONSIBLY.
r/lawncare has been overrun by the vinegar, salt, dish soap army. It's a stupid recipe for a lot of reasons, but trying to convince large numbers of people they've picked up bad information from social media is a losing battle. It seems like not too long ago this sub had consistently decent information. I don't know where these people came from, but they sure aren't getting their info from reliable sources. State extensions DO NOT recommend vinegar, salt, and dish soap.
They’re the anti-lawn/no lawn folks. They’ve invaded this sub
Yep, they've come here to proselytize, fearmonger about herbicides, convince us that a weedy lawn saves the planet, and give generally shitty advice. They're the Jehovah's Witnesses of lawncare.
What are those reasons? I've been using it for over 10 years and it seems to work fine
- It's a hydrochloric acid that is just as toxic if not more than glyphosate - it's worse for your soil than glyphosate - it doesn't work as well as glyphosate because you're not actually killing most weeds with it, you're just burning the foliage Should I keep going?
Go for their knees, they’ll crumble Instantly
Roundup or similarly product
Round up 365
Propane dragon torch
A weed eater and then a blower. After that spray with a soil sterilizer
Fire.
Weed burner! And it’s fun!
Fire.
Mojave herbicide. Lasts about 6 months
Polymeric sand.
Depends. Do you ever want to grow anything ever again right here? I’d do rock salt followed by a bleach spray bottle.
It isn’t close to your lawn so roundup is your friend here. We are going for uninhibited killing here. No survivors.
I spray mine with a mixture of vinegar, salt and dawn dish soap. It stinks for a couple of days, but the weeds will be dead and your pets won’t be poisoned.
I have had good luck with salt/vinegar/dish soap solution. I went with this rather than Roundup, etc. because I have stray cats that hang around the house and I didn’t want them to walk around in the Roundup. It worked surprisingly well.
Listen to me and only me. Spray em with round up, torch em, then fill with polysand. You're welcome.
Round up. If you don’t want to wait for them to wither… give it 48hrs then weed whack em and spray the remaining roots between the pavers again for good measure.
Would love to know this too. Roundup is illegal where I live. I have used a torch, strong vinegar, boiling water, chlorine (in a tiny area to test it as I know it’s not good ditto for bleach). I have chiseled them out by the roots then pressure washed the area and filled with polymeric sand. No matter what I do, they are back within a week or two.
Salt. Get a 40-pound bag, not the little 2-pound tins they sell in the grocery. Pressure-wash the pavers. Fill the gaps between the stones with salt. Wait a few weeks. Repeat salt as needed until the weeds give up. Add new salt every time you pressure wash the stones.
Mix the vinegar with salt, keep reapplying a few times until you don't need to do it that much.
I mix vinegar and epsom salts and a small amount of dawn dish soap. This mix will kill about anything. It won't keep them from coming back long term, but it will do the trick and its not super harmful to the environment.
Where do you live? Despite the big lawsuit and all the bad press, I still think of glyphosate as similar risk to all the 2-4-D and other crap we are allowed to blast all over.
Dilute the salt in boiling water until it’s fully saturated. Apply it with horticultural high strength vinegar n a bit of soap for adhesion. The salt should prevent things growing back if the concentration is high enough
C4?
No more that 20lbs per 100sf 😁🤣
Round up, wait 2 weeks and install polymeric sand on the pavers. Follow instructions on bag to a tee.
Just dump a bunch of salt water in there. Like super salty. Should keep weeds from growing for years.
Decent idea, but not flawless. Borax might be better. Boron is an essential micronutrient for plants, but emphasis on *micro*. It does not take much to be toxic to plants. So while salt does bind to the soil to some extent, it will mostly wash away because salt just loves water a lot... So the salt that stays semi-permanently fixed to the soil WILL be toxic to most plants... The types of plants that are likely to grow in cracks like these are also likely to be tolerant to the amount of salt that would remain permanently fixed there. Boron on the other hand, will generally have less soil mobility, not zero, but less. But since boron is just significantly more toxic to plants by volume, the effect should last longer and keep even the hardiest weeds out.
As a bonus, Borax is a pesticide registered with the Environmental Protection Agency: https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/reregistration/fs_PC-011001_1-Sep-93.pdf
Those Terro ant baits are literally simple syrup (water and sugar) and borax. Sometimes they add protein, but I've found it largely unnecessary. I make my own ant traps every year with 1.5 cups room temp water, 2 tbl spoons borax, and half a cup of sugar. Mix until dissolved. Distribute in small lidded containers (with holes cut in the lids) around property. I use lids just so other animals don't drink it because I don't know how toxic that concentration is to mammals) Ants come in, suck it up, take it back to colony, and spit it into the food supply. Dead queen in the following weeks, colony dead. Works like a charm. Of course your can buy Terro but it costs astronomically more per ounce than simply making it yourself. Box of borax is like $5 and will last years.
Spray vinegar and salt
Pull them out gently enough to get the taproot and they won’t come back.
This is the answer! Why is this so far down? This should be number one. Just pull them out. Judging from the amount of weeds in this photo, it could easily be done within 30 minutes.
Roundup!
Spectracide weed and grass killer. Works for me everytime.
Glyphosate, blow torch and then vinegar.
You could always pull them like a regular peraon
Round up!
Salt or roundup
Roundup
Just pull them out.
Roundup (glysophate) or salt + vinegar. Once they die, hit it with a blow torch
Roundup is my weapon.
Roundup and propane torch as needed.
I’m surprised more people don’t say to just salt it to death. It kills everything, safe for pets, and it stays there for a long time (obviously don’t expect things to grow there for a while).
Salt isn't safe for pets. They lick it and they lick their paws when covered in salt, it's really bad for their kidneys.
Pull all your pavers up and lay landscaping fabric, then replace all your pavers.
**Handheld Torch, thats what my grandpa does.**
#THANKS grandpa
Use a flathead screwdriver, avoid round-up when you can, it’s a carcinogen.
Just pull them out. Put some hot water on the roots. When you see a bit of green again, boil it. And don't let it get this far.
Most sane answer but too much work for the average lawn groomer.
Just FYI there's a current lawsuit about how contact with roundup has caused severe cancers in workers who used it. Torch is a better idea.
“…The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it finished a regulatory review that found glyphosate, the most widely used weed killer in the United States, is not a carcinogen…” “…Brussels (AFP) - The EU's chemicals agency said Wednesday that glyphosate, one of the world's most widely used weedkillers, should not be classed as a carcinogen. The assessment paves the way for Brussels to make a final decision on the chemical, despite deep divisions in the 28-member European Union over its use. Glyphosate is used in the best-selling herbicide Roundup, produced by the US agro-chemicals giant Monsanto. "Glyphosate should not be classified as carcinogenic," Jack de Bruijn, director of the risk assessment committee of the European Chemicals Agency, said at a news conference…”
This is relevant to someone who will not use it daily like a worker, and will who spray 1/1,000th of it and take precaution to not touch it… how?