On 21/06/2019 11:58, NY wrote:
"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
I have a patio area/path consisting of a couple of inches of pea
gravel on top of some weed matting.

When I first created this 20-odd years ago, I gave the soil a liberal
dose of sodium chlorate before laying the weed matting. This kept it
weed-free for quite a few years, but the matting has now deteriorated
- allowing a lot of weeds to take root.

I have removed the gravel and the weeds, and am about to take up the
matting and renew it before covering it with new gravel. I need to be
able to neutralise the soil in order to prevent any roots or seeds
left in from growing. I don't think you can buy sodium chlorate any
more. Most of the weedkillers available seem to be of the systemic
type - which kill existing weeds but don't affect the soil. But that's
not what I want!

Beware also of soil getting into the gravel, above the still-intact weed
membrane, allowing weeds to grow *above* the membrane.

Our house has a *lot* of fairly deep 1/2" gravel for the drive, and it
is covered in weeds. We've tried hoeing them off, and when I've pulled
up weeds, they have had very shallow roots embedded in the gravel but
not going through the membrane to the soil underneath. The gravel is a
confounded nuisance, because it makes it *very* difficult to wheel the
garden-waste bin to the garden where it is needed, and likewise for the
lawn mower. Both start to dig into the gravel almost as soon as they go
from paving stones/tarmac onto the gravel, and quickly end up buried up
to their axles in gravel.

Hire a whacker for a day

My gravel was like that until 15 years of cars....

--
"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow witted
man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest
thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly
persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid
before him."

- Leo Tolstoy