UPDATED
what a fine stone patio and what lovely stone steps but then….gasp…..are those….plants? growing in between the stones?
Weeds between pavers, weeds between flagstone joints
TLDR: leave the weeds alone. On a natural, irregular stone patio, they often don’t look too bad and with joints set tight and filled with stone dust, you usually don’t get “too many”. But if you must, must kill, because you’re some kind of bad ass weed killer….then use boiling water. Not poison. You’re welcome!
I’ve seen some bad advice online about how to remove weeds from in between patio pavers and flagstones. One piece of bad advice, that comes up way too often is this: lift up the bricks/stones, lay a piece of plastic(!), re-lay the stones. Terrible, terrible idea. Totally unnecessary and really, such a method will not help very much at all.
Another piece common advice is this: seal the paver joints with polymeric sand. Not the best possible advice either in my opinion. Polymeric sand usually makes a mess, always cracks within a couple years, can be rather difficult to repair once it cracks up….and it’s kind of hilarious how after all that trouble, weeds still grow, right through that expensive, difficult, messy polymeric sand.
patio weed removing options:
If laying a flagstone patio, make sure the joints are fairly tight.
1. Just pull the weeds. Old fashioned, right?
-
Use a small hand-held torch. They make extending wands that connect to a standard propane torch, the same one you use for your camp stove. Using one of these wands will save you from having to bend down, you can use it from a standing position. Good if your back just does not want to bend too often. Boiling water works too.
-
Use agricultural vinegar (not regular vinegar, but 30% acetic acid like this). This is natural poison. Will kill garden plants/lawn and what-not too, if spilled or over-sprayed.
- BEST POSSIBLE WEED-BETWEEN-PAVER-JOINTS SOLUTION: just pour boiling water unto the weeds. I know, like “duh”, right? Just boil you some water….check it out, it’s that easy–boil the water and step two–pour the water. Only takes about half a cup of boiling water to kill any weed you have on your patio–so a whole tea-pot worth of boiling water and you can remove the weeds for a 900 square foot patio, no problem.
You are welcome.
- Plant a ground cover such as creeping thyme or moss.
- Hire Devine Escapes to build the patio. Then hire us to do a yearly maintenance. Just a couple hours or so. We remove any weeds, make sure there is no wobbling nor puddling, top off stone dust between the joints and like that, you’re good to go. I’ve noticed that when clients hire us to perform this yearly maintenance in the spring, that if I stop by in mid summer, there usually is a weed or two. One or two weeds usually does not cause any great aesthetic offense—it can be charming, even.
People stress over weeds in the patio way more than they need to. Just build your patio well, maintain it maybe once a year and live with a weed or two. The more you fret over them, the faster they grow back. Years of experience inform that last statement—the more you fret over them, the faster they grow back..
NOT MY WORK. Years ago I was called in to look at a dry stone wall that needed repair and I snapped this photo of it. Anyway, just now I was looking for a photo with a weedy patio and this is the one I found. Lo and Behold, the weeds are not hurting a single thing. And I really think this is a good point to make: flagstone is a natural product. Weeds are natural. I really believe that weeds amongst bricks are more likely to cause offense, than weeds amongst stone.
Need more help with your stone patio? DIY phone/email/video chat consultation services now available!
Phone Call Rates:
$80.00 for a half hour consultation.
$115.00 for a full hour.
contact Devin at devin@devineescapes.com
Monies are payable via paypal.
Additional info:
Standard white vinegar, the stuff you have in your kitchen, contains one percent acetic acid. Agricultural vinegar contains up to thirty percent acetic acid. You can use the stronger stuff, if you must…well, at least it’s better than using some of the nastier poisons that are on the market. When using any type of acetic acid/salt water combination care must be taken to ensure that you are not poisoning nearby garden plants.
Acid and mortar
**yes, acid can wear away mortar. I really wouldn’t bother using vinegar on dry-laid stone patio but I really wouldn’t use vinegar on a mortared patio. With 30% acetic acid, you may likely see that mortar bubbling away as the acid eats it. Just use boiling water or better yet, leave the weeds be.
In the beginning of this article I criticized the method of using plastic or landscape fabric beneath pavers. Now, I’ll explain a little more. If your paver is 2” thick and sits on a one inch thick bed of sand or stone dust…what good does it do to have a weed barrier beneath the bedding sand/stone dust? Very little good at all—the weeds still have 3” of material in which to grow! (the 2 inches of paver depth plus 1 inch bedding sand) And that is plenty. The really nasty weeds, with deep tubers, such as dandelions—sure, a weed barrier should at least stop the worst of the weeds from getting so deep, right? Wrong. Dandelions will surely bust right through you landscape fabric—if they’ve already gotten three inches down, a thin membrane is not going to stop them from getting further. The less aggressive weeds will be stopped from getting further, but the they’ve already got 3 inches to work with, so yeah—weed fabric beneath a patio….nah. Pass on that one. Just another excuse to $ell you something that you do not need.
Keep it natural folks, keep it real. And remember, life may be messy….but the alternative ain’t living!
hardscaping services available from Devine Escapes include:
- hardscape design
- flagstone patios
- walkways
- walls
- Masonry
- dry stone sculpture
- log arbors
- Ponds
- Phone cconsultation/DIY flagstone help
- custom built stone benches and stone birdbaths
Natural stone, traditional, real stone masonry. We regularly do projects in the Main Line area, the Poconos, and West Chester New York and the greater Baltimore area. I do work all across America, but the general serving area includes:
Devon PA | Chester Springs PA | Irvington NY | Yonkers NY | Westchester NY | Bryn Mawr PA | Paoli PA | San Francisco CA | Silver Spring MD
Trackbacks/Pingbacks