Oh, Nothing. Just Salting My Patio.

We have an awesome patio that the husband made for me out of recycled materials. We have $75 invested into our 30'x42' backyard paradise for the underlying layer of sand. It's the sweetest thing ever. In summer, we live out there. In spring and fall, we gather around the fire pit and roast s'mores and laugh. In winter, we clear the patio furniture, water it down, and play hockey on the iced arena.

We love our patio.

What I don't love about our patio is the never-ending war I wage on Things That Grow Between The Pavers. It used to be just weeds that grew up, but the last few years I'm killing as much grass as anything. Do you know the irony of this? We can't get a nice front lawn for love or money, and the grass grows thick and green in the cracks in our patio. It's so unfair. And seems a little wrong to be killing it.

I've tried just about everything over the years in the War On Weeds. I started with commercial killers, and had to spray the entire patio about twice per year. It wouldn't be a huge deal if the patio wasn't so huge. That gets expensive. And then I hated the "keep kids and dogs off this until it's dry" aspect. How safe can that be, when the dogs lick dropped marshmallows off the pavers, even after it's dry?

Last year I went a bit more homemade. I used vinegar. I'd heard that vinegar will kill things. And it did. It also seemed to eat a little bit of the finish off the pavers. Very uncool. I was even more frustrated when the weeds grew back way sooner than I thought they should.

Scratch vinegar off the list.

This year's experiment is salt. I thought I'd read in the Bible that after the Israelites conquered a city, they sowed it with salt as a punishment. Coupled with the fact that I'd just heard that salt is a natural weed killer, I figured I'd give it a go. I mean, generic salt is 48 cents per box, so it wouldn't be the worst money-suck if it didn't work. Just a time suck.

Trying to guess how much salt my patio would need, I put 7 boxes in my shopping cart and came home to spread it. I only got one can spread before the rain came, but figured it would be perfect. It would wash down into the cracks and help me out. I also realized that my 7 boxes weren't going to go nearly as far as I thought they would. A few days after my first box experiment, this is the result:


How fun is that?! So I used the remaining 6 boxes and will have to get to the store for more. But the good news is that I spent $3.36 and it's working. Spending another $10 will probably get the job done, and it's cheaper than either vinegar or commercial weed killer. Epic.

I'd read that if salted heavily enough, nothing will ever grow back in that spot. You're to be VERY careful using this much salt or you'll have dead spots in your yard. One can only hope that you can believe everything you read on the internet. If I never have to crawl on my hands and knees back and forth on the entire patio ever again, I'll be very, very happy.




2 comments:

wendy said...

You'll have to let us know if this works or not! Happy May Day!!

Cindy said...

Salt?!? This would be awesome!! I'm gonna have to try it.

I definitely understand the part about the grass growing thick and green everywhere... except the lawn. Ugh.