Use of pesticides/weed killer etc

ooops; lots of typos ....

Ahem Tegan

Please think about the readers [us] here. And i have not given up , but almost did

If you space your words in sentences and paragraphs, and just send a block of words it does not read well.

HQ take note.

Hope you had an enjoyable lunch with the glass or two.

Clearing out is a b***er Sorry I dont use smileys here the ones GN uses all look like grimaces

Hope it is sunny where you are

It would have [embarrassingly] taken up about two gransnet pages had I used paragraphs . It served it's purpose in that I had a good break from cobweb twizzling.However I think I might have found the cause of the damp in the living room [need for b***er emoticom here]. Back into the frey [fray?]....

Touch rude there jollyg

Type how you want to Tegan, it's part of your personality!

I use weedkiller on the front bit which is all gravel as I'm far to old to go pulling that many weeds out. The drive is a b****r too but that is mostly seeded Valerian! I think I have enough to sell it to an alternative therapy company as an aid to sleep! If we can get a mortgage we are having it retarmac'd in a couple of weeks time and I'm hoping that sorts the little blighters out.

I've got a gravelly bit at the side which is covered in Californian poppies throughout the summer which always looked lovely. Then some Aquilegia self seeded itself which, again looked lovely. However, after years of this for some reason this summer the poppies went rampant, growing in the bricks etc. and not looking particularly nice in their own patch either. I also stupidly scattered a few seeds in the back garden and that is now coming back to bite me on the b*m .Valerian seems to be everywhere this year as well as is buddleia...must be something to do with the weather perhaps?

Tegan and kittyl I totally commiserate; 2 weeks away and the garden is invaded by every blinking self-seeder known to British gardeners.

I've resorted to a knock 'em dead 24 hours to death weed killer because quite frankly I cba to try playing nicely and dig them up individually. The Old Man's Beard is yards long, Granny's Bonnets are taking over every crack and crevice and the gravel's smothered in assorted grasses, weeds galore and baby buddleias and valerian (which I stupidly planted become I thought it looked 'pretty').

I use weed killer sparingly, when it will dry quickly and have every intention of continuing to do so.

Go for it!

Just did a bit of spraying in the back garden and my little frog [I assume there's just one...he keeps popping up and scaring me to death wherever I'm working] leapt out from where I was spraying, so now I'm worrying about him ingesting the stuff. I even made him a special upturned flower pot home on the other side of the garden but, no, he has to live in the long grass next to the weeds where I'm likely to tread on him or mow him to pieces #doesn'tbearthinkingabout
loopy...my weedkiller takes three hours. It's very old [as I've said, I don't use it much] so was probably banned years ago...me and the frog may have grown two heads by tomorrow.I really hope that that's it now and I don't have to use it for several more years.

that'll be seriously disconcerting!
I have just as much wildlife as ever. Obviously I try to avoid spraying anything animate (Mr. Toad gets put in a bucket and put on the compost heap then moved back later)
I try to do the same with frogs too but so far I haven't seen any ill effects.

A totally organic gardener here. I loathe weed killer, slug killer and so on.

I spent most of Friday digging up part of the front garden, getting rid of 'unwanted' flowers aka weeds and planting Spring bulbs (300+). Have just woken up with shooting pains all down my right arm, which convinced me I was having one of those woman's heart attacks - you know the kind you hear about, no chest pain.

Got up and made a rather than cause a fuss, and wondering what's the dress code for early morning visit to A & E and cleaned teeth (just in case) which tea brewed.

Common sense prevailed as I remembered all that digging, hence pains in arm. I think!

We use weedkiller on the gravel driveway which is quite long. We make sure that it is one that is safe if cats are around - and there are increasing numbers moving into the absent Feline Hotel and Café - as they will absorb things through the pads of their feet. (Useful tip for cat owners, by the way, if you are using antiseptic/disinfectant indoors, the rule is safe Savlon but dangerous Dettol.) Its effect on weeds last for up to a year so that seems a reasonable compromise.

Most weeding of the flower, herb and vegetable beds is done by hand. As we have just had a very wet winter, this is proving to be an arduous and time-consuming task. The lawns are awful and will have to be sprayed to get rid of the clover and sundry other broad-leaved weeds. It has to be used on a dry day and then it dries very quickly.

Tegan Do be careful about worms and water as the poor little devils can drown. It must be a terrible worm's dilemma on rainy days - if they stay underground, they risk drowning; if they emerge into the daylight, they risk death by ultra-violet light. Incidentally, does anyone know how a worm can tell which way is up and which way is down?

jollyg I have used paragraphs but not double spacing which is really only required in children's books in my experience. I think I may even have used a semi-colon. However, I think that you should be aware that this is a social forum, not War and Peace.

Is that the first line of a joke Absent ?

I meant about the worms.

Totally organic here too. Never use weedkiller and we have lots of gravel; courtyard, drive and paths. I do have an electric wand which does a pretty good job at burning the larger weeds, but grass is a problem. I don't have any solution for that apart from regular weeding by hand. Sorry!

Try getting rid of the notifiable weed, Japanese Knotweed, without weedkiller. Just try.

Just saying.

We I mow our 'gravel' because grasses and rushes have grown through it.

There is a solution to Japanese Knotweed which involves using a compost accelerator, but you need to be a professional to use it largely for technical reasons with its licence. It's reckoned to be less chemically harmful than glyphosate.

See the conversation on this forum * but what ever you do with your compost heap do not accidentally spill this substance over your pernicious weeds if you live in the EU. Particularly mares tail/horsetail (ie equisetum) or japanese knotweed.

* allotment-garden.org/garden-diary/1989/ammonium-sulphamate-weed-killer-banned/

www.amazon.co.uk/ask/questions/asin/B004MMOEH2/ref=ask_ql_qlh_hza

You can buy compost accelerant on Amazon
www.amazon.co.uk/Mistral-Ammonium-Sulphamate-1Kg/dp/B004MMOEH2

I use chemicals if I have to. I try to be nice and have a live and let live policy but the slugs just don't get it. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. So they get poisoned every so often.

My mum's gardener told her to sprinkle a cheap biological washing powder over moss and weeds on her drive. He said the drive looks a bit odd for a few days. The dry powder burns the moss and weeds then when it rains it is carried to the roots. This double whammy kills them.

Just realised how posh 'my mum's gardener' sounds. She's not the lady of the manor He comes in for an hour at most once a fortnight to cut her grass and do bits and bobs in her garden.

I use chemicals if I have to. I try to be nice and have a live and let live policy but the slugs just don't get it. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. So they get poisoned every so often.

My mum's gardener told her to sprinkle a cheap biological washing powder over moss and weeds on her drive. He said the drive looks a bit odd for a few days. The dry powder burns the moss and weeds then when it rains it is carried to the roots. This double whammy kills them.

Just realised how posh 'my mum's gardener' sounds. She's not the lady of the manor He comes in for an hour at most once a fortnight to cut her grass and do bits and bobs in her garden.

I was fed up with the petals being eaten off the violas in half baskets along my fences. I resorted to 'organic' slug pellets, only to then see a squirrel having a feast! The flowers can be eaten in salads by humans, so probably taste good. I have now sprinkled in a few peanuts, hoping they will be preferable!
There was a question on the subject on Gardeners Question Time yesterday, and they said birds sometimes eat the flowers, but from behind, which was not the case for me.

I was told that white vinegar would kill the weeds on the patio but I imagine it would take hours and cost a fortune.

And smell like a 'chippie', kitty!

I've got lots of white vinegar from when I had the mould problem in the living room; I did think about trying it. Also I've found that the ash from the incinerator kills just about everything that it touches, although it also takes the colour out of the bricks. I covered the small area that I'd put the weedkiller on with a crate to stop any birds or animals walking on it [it really was a small area, just a few inches] and I'm hoping that the weedkiller can now stay on the shelf for a few more years.

I have used a mixture of white vinegar (only 30 cents a litre here), salt and washing up liquid. It does work, but not on the grass which is the biggest problem.