Grass in driveway - chemicals??

We have a long driveway and I need to know how to safely eradicate the grass and weeds that are popping up everywhere!! I started digging them up but it's tiring. I don't want to use chemicals either!! Roundup is a chemical right? I thought of putting salt on them but any ideas will be welcome!!

Household bleach works.

Plain boiling water works'

Thanks that's what I was hoping for!!

My great uncle always put gasoline on his. I wouldn't smoke while applying it though! ROTF

Knew you would have the answer smarty pants...lolol!! Ready for a chat??

Oh No!!! Not gasoline...it is bad very bad for the environment...just a few drops can contaminate hundreds of gallons of water...

Don't use GASOLINE!!!

Boiling hot water, salt, vinegar will do it!

And please don't burn leaves!!!

Love to the earth!
Rebecca

If you can find 10% pickling vinegar, try that...apply on the nottest sunniest day you can. It may take several applications but it works...it is also safe for the environment. There is a 20% vinegar, but I have never been able to find it. That would probably be even more effective.

No, I would never use gasoline - I too want to protect my land and the land of others!!! We all have wells around here!!! Lantana (nice to see you) - I have some English malt vinegar - the brown!! I'll check it out!! Thanks so much guys!!

Yep, vinegar or boiling water. Once you've got them out of there, spread some corn gluten as a pre-emergent so you won't have to do this again for a while. The gluten lasts about 3 months, so you'll have to put it out again then, but methinks it's worth it. ;-) Imaseedpicker, I think Badseed was just showing her bad self and being funny, but it's good to clarify!

lol - Badseed is always bad......... :-)

Okay kids, I was just kidding. My great uncle really did use gas though. You will find me out there on my hands and knees with a screwdriver, removing weeds from the driveway cracks! You probably won't find anyone, more of an organic gardener than me. LOL If the screwdriver isn't murderous enough, I'll turn the girls loose with the big wheels! :)

lol Chele - we know!! Me too - done the screwdriver trick!!

Should I send the girls with their big wheels??? That scraping sound drives the neighbors crazy, but it's pretty effective. LOL

I'll take the girls - as long as they leave the wheels behind!! My neighbour in our previous home had a child with such an impediment as this and she too drove me crazy...lol!!

Maybe that explains why the neighbors houses aren't selling. LOL I am kidding. When people come to look at the houses for sale, we threaten our children to stay in and be quiet. Don't have any idea how they got so nosey! giggle Now you know why I want acres at my next house. Figure I can give them their own WAY at the back. :)

I'm so glad about the gasoline...didn't think it was a joke though! LOL
You would really be surprised at the people who use it...we live on dirt roads and lots of people pour their oil from car changing on roads and never give it a thought!

And leaves it really burns me when I see them burning leaves and there is so much advertisment about not burning leaves...

Most people do not care anymore!

imaseedpicker it's just that many folks don't realize what harm they are doing!! Look at all the chemicals on sale in our stores. People have a problem and reach for the nearest thing on the shelf to put it right. Hopefully, one day they will change their way of thinking and it's up to us to spread the word. Education in these matters is the key!! If I see people blatantly ignoring the laws I report them!!

Uh oh, I can see where this thread is going ~ all four of us being the tree-huggers that we are! I can't agree with you more, Louisa~ most people just grab a quick fix off the store shelves before trying anything else, then they think, "Well, if one Tbsp. will do it, four will be better!" While I'm not completely and totally against the use of chemicals or the like in gardening, I don't use them much and am VERY MUCH against just shooting from the hip before seeking out and trying alternatives. The only chemical I personally have used at home in the past five years is Roundup and that was on the small patch of bermuda grass that was left after I pulled the majority of it by hand so I wouldn't have to use much of the chemical. Even poison ivy only gets it after DH has gotten most of it by hand and there's some he can't dig out (he's not allergic, thank God!).

DH was raised to be one of those "Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out" gardeners. His family had been that way ~ of course that was in the days of Badseed's great-uncle, before DDT was banned and when everyone thought chemicals were a miracle cure. Kenny finally got what I was saying after he sprayed some nasty stuff for fleas a few years ago (against my vehement protests) ~ he got sick! I mean puking his guts out sick! He told me later that the fleas were jumping on him, so he sprayed himself with it!! Oh, GOD!! But now he doesn't like to even look at chemical labels and pays more attention when I talk about organic solutions. He even jumps in on my side when I am in a debate with a chem-head like he used to be!

I firmly believe that if the warning labels were required reading before anyone was allowed to buy this stuff, no one would buy it. I just know that's why they don't print everything on the label ~ not only are the descriptions of the side effects and lists of damage that can be done too long to fit on the entire bottle, but it would scare people off. They CYA by offering to send you the info via mail or tell you where to find it on the 'net.

People are so lazy nowadays that they are trusting the makers and our govt. to keep bad stuff off the shelves ~ "It must be safe if it's for sale!" Then they're the first to complain when they get cancer (usually from not using the product according to package directions, sometimes just from using the product) and blame everyone else except the one who shoulders much of the blame ~ themselves.

Oh, man! I'd better get off my soapbox before I fall off. *GRIN!*

I would imagine your hubbie being totally converted to organic since the flea episode - that was something wasn't it!!! Sheesh!! I saw a new product advertised on TV - can't remember the name of it - some cleaning stuff!! Oh yes, it was CHOMP!! Can you believe it!! lol!! Loved (meaning ridiculed) the description "Safer cleaning product" or words to that affect. Not 'safe' product but safer!!! Not daft are they!! I'm not going to get on my soap box because it would take me a month of Sundays to say exactly what I feel!!! But enjoyed yours!! :-)

I have used vinger too and it works well but I love roundup.

Cheap gin and baby shampoo mixed with a water for a spritz! It works!

But vinegar is a chemical...Acetic acid to be exact. What is needed is common sense usage of available remedies. I use Roundup on the sidewalk cracks but dig up the weeds every where else.Boiling water is also a chemical, hydrogen dioxide(H2O) so you see it's a lot about semantics.Especially since petroleum is the ORGANIC residue of long dead dinos!

If we're going to split hairs, I could sit here all night and write a treatise on phytochemicals, biochemicals, agrochemicals, etc., but since we're talking semantics, I believe the context in which I used the term pretty well tells you which of the three above I was referring to. Same with "organic."

I do agree with you, Kikisdad, that what we need is common sense. That's exactly what I'm getting at ~ most people don't use it. If everyone would use these chemicals according to package directions, we wouldn't have five-legged frogs and only 32 California Condors left. And doesn't common sense dictate that something that will be widely used on Mom Nature should be widely tested first?

Dale, common sense tells me to drink the gin, pull the weeds and use the water and shampoo to wash the dirt off my hands! LOLOL! That really works? I'll have to try it sometime!

I've enjoyed reading all of the suggestions posted here. Although I wouldn't consider myself a tree-hugger I try to avoid using pesticides whenever possible and last year we didn't use any in our gardens. More than half of Virginia's lands drain to the Cheasapeake Bay and some of our state watersheds eventually drain to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. I believe many people who automatically reach for a pesticide as a quick fix are uninformed as to how far it can actually travel and the damage it can do.

I have always used apple cider vinegar mixed with a few drops of liquid dish soap and used in a spray bottle and spray the weeds on a very hot sunny day. I know, alot of people will probably frown on that solution but it does work and I have also used boiling water on my weeds and also the boiling water on fire ant hills.