Help with weeds taking over

StardewValley

Hello everyone, I’m new to the forums and looking for some advice on tackling my overgrown patio. I hope it’s okay to ask here.

I’m 30 and this is the first time in my life I’ve ever lived in a home with a garden so I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. Please be gentle and excuse my ignorance - I am totally winging this home ownership thing. When I moved into this house 2 years ago the patio was lovely and clear with just paving stones and loose gravel type pebbles, but now it’s almost wall to wall weeds.

I can’t really afford to have a professional come round, so I’m hoping this is something I can tackle myself. My little boy just turned 1 and I would love to get a swing outside for him, so that is my motivation for wanting to get this done.

Please explain like I’m 5: where do I start removing all of these weeds? I would be so grateful for any advice.

Thanks for your time. 😊

Exodi

Well I'd start by saying that weeds are certainly not a 'one-and-done' sort of thing, you'll want to get in a habit of keeping on top of it so they don't take overrun your garden like the above. But with that said there are steps you can take to slow them down-

For the grass growing between the cracks, you should be able to pull it out. You'll then want to scrub off the excess mud and moss growing between the cracks (a pressure washer should do this quite quickly). You could then buy a weed inhibiting paving sand, and simply brush between all the slabs. This should keep weeds at bay for the foreseeable future.

For the plants seemingly growing out the gravel, I suspect by the sheer volume that there is either no weed membrane at all, or there is but it has failed (e.g. where a new layer of topsoil has formed from decomposing organic material). You will want to pull out the weeds out by hand, remove the gravel, then lay a new weed membrane and cover with fresh gravel. This isn't a big or expensive job, something that could be done in a weekend.

twopenny

Should be easy and cheap enough and there are a number of ways. I'm not up to date with 'safe' weedkillers but others will be along tomorrow with brand names.

Of course doing it by hand is free but would take a couple of hours over 2-3days, time which your little lad may not give you 🙂

With such a young child gravel is not the best. When you've dealt with the weeds you could put a weed proof membrane down and cover with small grade bark chipping which is softer or even just while he's young a membrane and some artificial turf. Quickest and cheapest.

Nice old brick wall there. When he's a bit older you could uncover the paving and make a garden again with strawberries he could pick and flowers. Lavender would be nice, insect friendly and just needs cutting once a year. He could play with his cars and things on the paving

FreeBear

When you've dealt with the weeds you could put a weed proof membrane down and cover with small grade bark chipping which is softer or even just while he's young a membrane and some artificial turf. Quickest and cheapest.

Please think twice about weed proof membranes. Weeds will start to grow in the bark chippings and send roots down. These roots will embed themselves in the membrane. When the time comes to rip it out, the membrane can not be recycled, so has to go to landfill (or worse, an incinerator). Same for the outdoor carpet. Yet more plastic that can not be recycled. And even worse, it slowly breaks down in sunlight, leaching microplastics in to the environment.

I'd suggest raking up the gravel, put down bark, and planting things like camomile, wild strawberries, dwarf lavender, and/or any number of low growing flowers - Just avoid things like Monkshood and other toxic plants.

kimwp

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068535#Comment_82068535

I very much agree with this sentiment.

teaselMay

I'd weed the circle by hand (sit on the floor and use a knife and pull out as much as you can) and then pressure was the slabs if you have one, or just scrub the stones with biological washing liquid or a slab cleaner if you don't. Once it's done just keep on top of it, if you see a weed pull it up. You could then have maybe a bistro set on there or whatever suits you for sitting out there and toys.

Personally I'd remove the pebbles along with the weeds and whatever membrane is underneath them. See what's underneath them and then make that corner alive by having some plants and grass. You'll probably need to add some top soil and compost.

You could make the whole of the pebble area low maintenance shrubs if you wanted or create outside play space by making it lawn.

I prefer my grass to be full of things other than grass and so if sowing seed would sow clover seed - you can buy it by the kilo from Maltbys on Amazon as well as or instead of grass seed. Clover is an interesting plant, if you leave it uncut it grows a foot or so tall with big leaves, but if you cut it regularly it becomes a low short lawn like plant and so you can choose how big a plant you'd like.

Try not to feel overwhelmed by it, just little and often will get and keep it sorted, it looks a lovely space

Baldytyke88

If you don't want to grow anything, salt will kill most weeds.

teaselMay

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068583#Comment_82068583

It will, and be less noxious than weedkillers, but you won't be able to grow anything for a very long time and so only use it if you definitely want to keep pebbles and no plants there

XzavierWalnut

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068516#Comment_82068516

Maybe I did something wrong, my drive was full of moss and small weeds, and last year I spent hours and hours using a Ryobi patio cleaner to clean all the gaps on my drive, which is big enough for 4 cars, and then laid down the weed inhibiting sand.
Made no difference at all. In fact the moss actually seems worse.

FreeBear

Weed inhibiting sand just contains a little bit of weedkiller. Not a lot of good for controlling moss. And when it rains, the weedkiller gets washed out…

gwynlas

Gardening can be very therapeutic and once you have sorted weeds you can keep on top of a small area quite easily an hour or to outside with your little boy in chair will soon get it sorted.

I would start with the grass and pull it up by hand any difficult bits you can use a knife or whatever to ease the roots out. Some weeds are quite pretty and slo growing so you could decide to leave them.

There are a number of weedkillers out there but these are best used on light new growth