How to stop grass from coming through decking gaps

[Mamaof3]

Ok silly Hubby slept in on the morning the decking Guys did a decking job for Us...so by the time he reached the site the decking was already 3/4 completed and he couldn't put the weed mat down.

So what he did instead was give the area a good spray of grass killerbut its not exactly working because we've got a heap of grass coming through the gaps and we're finding it almost impossible to keep up with them!

There is literally no way for us to get the weed matt under the decking now so just wondering if the grass will eventually die off (given its not exposed to sun/water) or if there's another way for us to kill off the grass???

Any suggestions??

 

[Simon]

I can't imagine it lasting long out of the sun and rain.

The soil is full of seeds so stuff may come up for a while.

Perhaps irradiation? Check the yellow pages

 

[topcropper]

Just spray it again with roundup. It should stop coming up soon if it's not getting rain or sun.


See ya's.

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

Yell at it.

 

[jaycee]

I'd try Mark's advice first.. it's free so what ahve you got to lose. You can always then go with the next (though some might say more sensible) best Topcropper's suggestion if yelling doesn't work...

 

[Piston Broke]

You can buy concentrated Zero which aint cheap, but if you dilute it 50/50 (instructions say ~10:1 I think) nothing will grow for a long time.

 

[Propertunity]

You can buy concentrated Zero which aint cheap, but if you dilute it 50/50 (instructions say ~10:1 I think) nothing will grow for a long time.

Well if it comes to that, you can buy some really cheap no-name course salt (or even a bag of swimming pool salt for $6 or so). Nothing will grow when you 'salt the earth' either

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

 

[marg4000]

I agree with Propertunity - go for salt and lots of it.
Marg

 

[wylie]

Just let the grass grow up through the gaps and when it is long enough, run the mower over it .

Don't hassle the hubby about sleeping in and not getting the weed mat down. We have used weed mat before. I firmly believe it is called "weed mat" because it is specially impregnated with weed seeds . We have tried thick layers of newspaper (hopeless), plastic sheeting (hopeless) and weed mat (hopeless).

In the end, poison works pretty well.

 

[Mamaof3]

ha ha i have in fact been cursing at the grass over past few days actually because the damn thing is making our new deck look disgusting

problem with using any chemicals is how in the world do we spray it down there? the gaps in between each line of timber decking is not very wide and as mentioned, there is literally no gap between deck and ground that we can squeeze anything through either?

looks like that salt idea might be our only option and just hope the lack of water/sun exposure will kill it!

thanks all! off to buy some salt tomorrow!

 

[sue78]

just spray with round up.

we used tarp which works well.

 

[Simon]

Spreading the salt might be hard - if you use the cracks you will get lines of salt.

If it is impossible maybe make up a heavy solution and try to swamp the area from above or a side?

 

[topcropper]

You can buy concentrated Zero which aint cheap, but if you dilute it 50/50 (instructions say ~10:1 I think) nothing will grow for a long time.

Off topic, but I'm sure this will be of interest to some.

'Zero' is a highly dilluted roundup sold to city people at huge markup, I'm guessing 100 or 200 times markup compared to real roundup, although I don't know what 'zero' costs per litre. It contains 7.2 grams / litre of glyphosate and costs a fortune. The stock standard 'farmer grade' stuff I use contains 480 grams / litre of glyphosate, so it's about 60 times more concentrated. A thousand litres of real stuff weighs about 1300 kilos.

I buy roundup in thousand litre shuttles for $4 per litre. I have 4 thousand litres in the shed right now. With a litre of real roundup, I can spray a hectare of weeds. A hectare of dead weeds for $4. That's cheap.

Roundup or 'zero' will only kill the plants that are there at the time. It has no residual, so will not stop plants from re-emerging. There are heaps of other chemicals that would give a long term residual effect.


See ya's.

 

[topcropper]

problem with using any chemicals is how in the world do we spray it down there? the gaps in between each line of timber decking is not very wide and as mentioned, there is literally no gap between deck and ground that we can squeeze anything through either?

looks like that salt idea might be our only option and just hope the lack of water/sun exposure will kill it!

thanks all! off to buy some salt tomorrow!

If you can spread salt on it, why can't it be sprayed with roundup? Even if only 5% of the roundup got through the gaps in the decking, it would still work. Leave for an hour, then wash the deck to get rid of the roundup on the wood.

If it was me, and I was using my 'farmer grade' real roundup for $4 per litre, it would cost me just a few cents worth of chemical. I know what would be easier too.

Plus, with no rain to wash the salt into the soil, it will probably just sit on the surface and do nothing. Salt sitting on dry soil won't kill the grass, and it won't stop weeds germinating untill it's washed in. The grass may have roots running out from under the veranda and be getting moisture and nutrients from there. Chucking salt on could be a complete waste of time and effort.


See ya's.

 

[RumpledElf]

Chuck on pool salt, sweep into the cracks, hose the deck down so it soaks in.

Roundup will kill the whole plant, so if its sticking out you can just spray the sticking out bits, although that really will look awful.

Are you in Queensland or something?

 

[Piston Broke]

'Zero' is a highly dilluted roundup sold to city people at huge markup, I'm guessing 100 or 200 times markup compared to real roundup, although I don't know what 'zero' costs per litre. It contains 7.2 grams / litre of glyphosate and costs a fortune. The stock standard 'farmer grade' stuff I use contains 480 grams / litre of glyphosate, so it's about 60 times more concentrated. A thousand litres of real stuff weighs about 1300 kilos.

Yep, but they also sell glyphosate 490g/L, the brand don't matter the concentration does. It's about $40-50 for one of these but it last a long long time (as you point out) and 50/50 really gives 12 mths no weeds ime.
Just be aware of where any rain may take it before you use it.
Not sure about the salt or how long it lasts.

 

[RumpledElf]

We get the generic brand 450 concentration of that stuff, about $20 for a litre.

Doesn't last all that long when you have a 1400sqm block and a nettle problem

We're mostly on top of the weeds though, just have to get em a few times when they are small. The neighbour's nettles were sticking over the top of the fence before he got out the whipper snipper.

 

[lizzie]

maybe he's just harvesting - nettles are high in nutrients and anti-oxidants, so he might be getting the next lot of organically grown nettle stems ready for market.

 

[Witzl]

kill it with fire.