Weed killer ... ??

[Arfa Daily]

Since all 'proper' weedkillers like sodium chlorate and paraquat have been banned to make way for eco-friendly coloured water ones, is there anything left on the market that can be bought from anywhere without having to have some license or other, that will lay waste to a weedy area ? My rear garden backs onto a field, and ever since I've lived here, I have had trouble with weeds from that field invading my garden. Nettles. Oh yes, lots and lots of nettles. And blackberry brambles and bindweed or whatever it is. It's a never ending fight to keep them at bay. You can clear them, and it looks luvverly. But by the next morning, they've grown again like triffids ...

There's one long strip next to my neighbour's fence, that I would like to de-weed. Permanently. For Ever. I'm talking nuclear aftermath here. Surface of the moon. I don't want anything to grow there again until long after my demise. And no suggestions of weed barrier membranes or the like. I've tried them all from cheap to expensive, and the weeds just laugh at me ...

Anyone got any (sensible ! ) recommendations ? :-)

Arfa

[Adrian C]

Concrete.

[Andy Burns]

It's not permanent, but BWK Brushwood Killer is effective on those, and docks and ground elder.

[Tim Watts]

readily available from ebay as a "compost accelerator".

[Chris Hogg]

SBK (systemic brushwood killer) for the brambles and woody stuff, glyphosate aka Roundup for everything else. IME nettles are very sensitive to glyphosate.

[The Natural Philosopher]

all those if mown flat disappear eventually, so strimmer?

Otherwise agricultural centre and industrial strengh glyphosate is needed for brambles.

Diesel will bugger it or about a year,.

'brushwood killer' is not too bad.

Conctrete?

[Mr Pounder]

Angle grinder.

[jgharston]

Nope. Doesn't work. You can see them thriving in the background here:

[Ian Jackson]

[Lawrence]

Full strength glyphosate is fine on brambles and nettles. I mix it with Attac, a water treatment designed to treat hard water and to hasten rain fastness. Roundup is expensive but there are other makes like Gallup. If you need a lot it is worth going to agricultural merchants like "

" . No connection, just a satisfied customer.

Lawrence

[Old Codger]

Agreed. Roundup ultra is commercial strength (three times normal) and available from many places, e.g.Amazon.

Glyphosate will kill most things, including nettles, brambles and tree trunks) if used in sufficient strength. However SBK is better for nettles, brambles and woody stuff. Will even deal with tree trunks at

50% strength when properly applied.

[Tim Streater]

It's 360 gm/litre. But you don't use it at that strength. You dilute as directed and your one litre lasts ten years or more. I see its under £40 in B&Q, thats less than I paid 15 years ago. And my bottle I bought then is still not empty.

I've been able to defeat Japanese Knotweed with it, although that took five or six years.

[ARWadsworth]

Bitch piss:-)

[Nick Leverton]

I believe the classical method involves sodium chloride ...

Nick

[Nick Leverton]

Thankfully not a problem we have here (f/x: touches a large number of other woody weeds just to make sure), but the first place I owned - before knotweed became a notifiable pest - it used to put on a growth spurt after treating with glyphosphate ...

Nick

[Edward]

Agreed, but getting the wife to piss in the right places is a bugger.

[ARWadsworth]

So get a German wife!

[The Medway Handyman]

Isn't that technically 'assault'?

:-)

[Arfa Daily]

Thanks for all the useful advice. I'll see what I can find locally, tomorrow.

Arfa

[Andy Webber]

salt (sodium chliride) is not very effective. Sodium Chlorate will work a lot better, if you can still get it.