Weeds and grass in gravel drive

What's wrong with weeds in your gravel driveway? I suppose you could say we've always had that. Most of our 800 ft driveway is two wheel tracks and a hump between the tracks. Try to get over.

I give the same advice (ie, "get over it") to people who are slaves to their gold course-like lawns.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

My land has had roundup applications for many years. I have very healthy soil, and soil tests show it is improving in OM, microbial life, mychorhizae fungi, and nutrient supplying power. It's nice to go against the grain.

I also just noticed Alice, that one of your links is to organic consumers.org. I wonder why they would be anti glyphosate? I can match link for link, the benefits, and safety of glyphosate. Seeing as you believe one side, would you believe links not related to monsanto on the other side.

When I read an article, I pay attention to where it is from and who is saying it. And then I think with my mind in a practical sense, and see if any flags go off.

All I'm saying is there are two side to every story. As a farmer, if my soil were getting worse, and I could link it to glyphosate, it would be in my interest to stop using it sparingly. But seeing as my soil is improving, I see no link here. For all I know, the glyphosate is making the land better.

Cheers,

Dale

Is it any surprise that injecting a toxin directly into an embryo can cause defects?

Seems to me the study is worthless

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Roundup is cheap if you buy it in the concentrate. If I get it on sale, it is under $2 a gallon for the mixed spray and a gallon does most of the weeds on 2 acres. But I am not spraying a solid sheet. I am walking along spot spraying the plants I don't want; the ones with stickers, or that don't die if they are pulled up.

You can buy soil sterilizers for areas where you know you don't ever want anything to grow for 1-2 years. They aren't expensive, either.

You can make your own weed killer with salt and vinegar, but I don't remember the proportions. It's a common recipe, so shouldn't be hard to find.

Roundup is really a lot like a religious thing. There are die-hard believers on both sides. But there is so much conflicting "information" out there, it's hard to know what's true.

Glyphosate is the least toxic idea I've seen here, but it only kills green growing plants, has to be repeated when new ones sprout. It is effective but short-term until the next wave of seeds sprout.

Salt & vinegar used heavy enough to do anything are more toxic & long-lasting than roundup, and cost more. Both are corrosive, salt especially will rust your vehicles.

Burning uses propane, which isn't cheap either, nor easy to lug around, and certainly there are dangers to this in dry times of the year.

There are soil sterilizer sprays that used to be popular, still available but are more and more frowned upon because they do last a long time, would be about as bad as spreading salt. They work well tho, keep new stuff from sprouting for a year or more.

Used motor oil has enviro issues these days.

Best option is to get a tractor and a 3pt blade, and blade the driveway gravel back & forth 2x a year. This kills off the roots, builds up your driveway, keeps everything in good shape.

--->Paul

BOX BLADE BEHIND THE TRACTOR! Quit the Roundup debate--it always goes astray!!!!!

geo

So then what do you use?....I am tired of having to weed eat a round all my paddocks and fencing...it uses more twine wrapping it's self around the cattle panels then it's worth.

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"If you tickle the earth with a hoe she laughs with a harvest."
- Douglas William Jerrold

Real is Beautiful -Sherry in Maine

I am 47

You must have been looking at our gravel driveway......

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"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back..." Maya Angelou

Much of the info you have is based on the ramblings of this dude.

He is a quack. He doesn't even know how Roundup works, it's mode of action, he thinks it makes plants susceptible to other diseases. He's got an anti-farming agenda which is odd since his office is loosley based from an ag college, but whatever.

He can't prove one single thing he's said on the topic, and what he's saying doesn't make any logical sense. Several have disproved his stuff.

But, it doesn't matter. People who firmly believe will keep quoting his stuff till the end of time, as if it were worthwhile.


There has been a lot of discussion on this topic in the farm world. A lot of fellas have tried different experiments, foliar feeding rup crops, yield trials with different levels of spray (one ag supplier sprayed 100x the regular rate of roundup on a patch of ground, got the same yield, soil tests show the same soil, etc.) so it's not like farmers are dumb about this.

It does not hold the smell test.

What you are quoting is religious groups, who firmly believe.

I can believe Moses parted the sea, I can believe Christ rose from the dead. But that's just me. I can't make you believe such things, and I can't prove it.

Same with the groups you are quoting. They have no science behind them. It's just a religious movement, and has no account in the real world. Great for those who want to follow along, but be careful accepting anything they say as if it were something real in the real touchable world.

Enough from me on this, the topic is on driveway maintenence, don't need to turn this into another relgious thread.

I'd say a tractor & 3pt blade angled using it a couple times a year when the roadbed is a little soft (spring & after some soaking rains in fall) will both vastly decrease the weeds, and help build up the gravel and deal with ruts and frost boils and washboards.

As Cabin Fever says, just living with it works too. We had that for years here, 2 wheel paths ans a grass hump in the middle on the 750 foot driveway. The grass part carried us better than the poorly graveled paths during spring thaw.

--->Paul

If the gravel is well-packed, can you mow over it? Wouldn't the sod help hold the gravel in place? A lot of salt is not a good idea. It builds up in the surrounding soil, and runs off into waterways. If you don't want to spray diluted concentrate Round-up or sterilizing agents, then do the flame-thrower thing.

Change the name. Every time I designate an area to be 'the garden', everything dies!

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"What one generation tolerates, the next generation embraces." -John Wesley

LOL! I like MushCreek's idea. Only problem for me is that the garden sprouted more weeds than any area on the property.

I bought a quart container of the generic glycophosphate last year. I have enough left in it for this year and part of next year. Our crusher-run drive is over 500' long. Yes, there are weeds from time to time, but I'm not obsessive.

The tricks to using glycophosphate are:
1. Use distilled water for the mix. It makes it more potent.
2. Use the finest spray mist you can get from your sprayer.
3. Spray in the windless morning of a day you know will be hot and dry. If there is a little dew left, so much the better.
4. Don't spray areas where there are no weeds.

I've tried adding detergent to the mix, but it seems to work against the glycophosphate. YMMV.

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George Washington did not run and hide.

You know you live in the country when you mow your driveway. I seldom have growth in the main drive way, however in the "turnaround" area by the house i do have growth in the middle. Just drive down one side or the other to even the wear as you go up and down, and the weeds will be killed out by the tires.

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"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."
Thomas Jefferson to George Washington 1787

lol! Potd!

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“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” - E.B. White

Hands down, best advice here.

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"For if you start dancing on tables, fanning yourself, feeling sleepy when you pick up a book... making love whenever you feel like it, then you know. The south has got you.”

http://farmandranchfreedom.org/Huber-European-letter

References, research, and works cited included on above link.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Sorry but when I moved here the driveway was like that. I brought in lots of gravel and had the neighbor level it. Not going to get over it and I am not a slave to my lawn (certainly not a golf course looking one at that) Some things bother me and this happens to be one of them. I don't loose sleep over it and could care less what other people think it could or should look like nor do I care about what their drive looks like.

Thanks to all those that offered advise. I appreciate the response even though it caused a round up debate.

Debate is a good thing. :-)

Alice
(former debate coach of state champion high school debate team)

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus