Brace yourself, for today I am going to show you my outdoor shame.
My once beautiful gravel driveway is becoming overgrown with very unwanted grass and weeds. Sure, I could use chemicals to kill them but I’d really rather not.
I just don’t want to put my furmily members (cats and dog) and the local wildlife at possible risk of developing some illness because I want my limestone gravel to look pristine.
But I do want that stuff gone.
So for those of you facing the same challenges and concerns, I consulted with Professor Google, who led me to "How to Remove Grass from a Gravel Driveway," as featured on: tipsbulletin.com.
According to the website there are many natural ways to kill grass and prevent weed growth without using grass killers such as Roundup, which contains glyphosate and other harmful herbicides. White vinegar contains acetic acid, which kills the cells in weeds and grass. Using dish soap in combination with the vinegar helps the solution to adhere to the plant, giving it more time to work.
This concoction is applied by filling a garden sprayer or a spray bottle with white vinegar and adding a couple of drops of your favourite dish soap. Spray an even layer onto the blades of the grass and weeds until they are saturated.
At this point we apparently just pull up a lawn chair, take a seat and watch them die. I wouldn’t hold my breath, but apparently they eventually croak. Sounds harmless enough though, which is what I want.
The best way to remove grass permanently is to pull it by hand. Doing this ensures the grass and its roots are gone, which prevents the grass from growing back. I already knew this, but who wants to spend hours on our hands and knees out on the driveway scraping our fingers to the bone digging out grass and roots?
Definitely not me. I want to apply something natural and have the problem magically disappear.
According to the website I can remove clumps of grass that have sprouted up in my gravel driveway using boiling water. The hot water will turn the grass blades brown and eventually kill the roots. All you need to do is boil a large pot of water and carefully pour the boiling water into a watering can, then immediately pour that water on all of the grassy areas you want eliminated. Repeat once a day until the grass has withered, turned brown, and died.
Now I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but if for whatever reason you let the water cool down a fair amount before you get out there, you will simply be watering the weeds and grass you are trying to kill, and they will grow like crazy.
Remember, that water has to be boiling HOT!
Another of their suggestions is to take your propane torch and brown the leaves repeatedly, which will kill the roots. Don’t get careless and burn anything down, like your neighbour’s garage for example, because you’ll end up in jail for arson, then those weeds will really get out of hand.
They also say just regular old table salt dissolved in water will go John Wick on unwanted green stuff, and last but not least — try bleach.
Just be careful the runoff doesn’t kill anything you want to stay healthy.
Next week I will share my chemical free experiments, anyone have a lab coat I can borrow?
Comments and feedback always welcome!
lmustard1948@gmail.com
