# Weeds Between Bricks



## mrigney (Jun 6, 2017)

Any advice from anyone on this? I live in an older house with a brick patio. Patio is original as far as I know, so we're talking 50 yr old brick and mortar. Weeds now grow up between bricks constantly. I've tried round-up, herbicide (Not Celsius, though). How can I get rid of this? Should I spray a pre-e (Prodiamine?) over the patio area? I have an herb garden in the corner of the patio (back on the far side of the picnic table) that I don't want to contaminate. How would y'all approach this? Spot treat? Solarize? I don't know...just throwing things out at this point. Pictures below.


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## high leverage (Jun 11, 2017)

weed burner/ Bernzomatic


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Hmmm, you could try to overspray some pre-e next time you apply it, or just keep a cheap 1-gallon pump sprayer on hand with some Roundup premixed. That's how I handle the random weeds and bermuda that pops up in my beds.

ETA: Agree that a weed burner would work too - and probably more fun than Roundup.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

I would Round up everything and wait a few days, then pressure wash the whole patio. Any gaps in the joints I would fill with polymeric sand and then finally spray a good PreM down.


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## high leverage (Jun 11, 2017)

Personally I am not a fan of using chemical near a food source that will be consumed. I know the risk of leaching is low. But recent studies conducted show glyphosate could be a potential carcinogen. Thus my suggestion of a weed burner.


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## chrismar (May 25, 2017)

Sandblast out whatever's there, re-fill with polymeric sand and then pre-m at the appropriate times? A little more extreme, but this isn't "just a few", this is basically weeds as the mortar/sand.


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## mrigney (Jun 6, 2017)

Yeah, it's definitely more than a few. I've lived in the house for 3 years now...I keep thinking w/the next round of weeding, round-up, etc, that it will get better, but it doesn't. It's 50 years of neglect that I'm trying to undone, unfortunately. Doesn't help that I don't think it was a particular high quality job to begin with (look at the size of the mortar joints between the bricks).

I do try to stay away from chemicals around food sources (always a challenge on the patio, but also in the yard around my garden and figuring out how close I want to apply herbicide/pre-e to it). I do like the idea of a weed burner. But who doesn't like the idea of playing with fire? I also like the general idea of MightyQuinn and chrismar. The bricked area is ~20x20, so the vast majority is not near my little herb garden. I hadn't thought about polymeric sand...

Of course, all of this talk now just has me wanting to rip up the whole thing and start over. Like I said, it's 50 years old, it's not super attractive to me, and there are spots that are definitely uneven. Would love to replace, but that's a lot of work, and even if I do it myself, probably $$$. Will just attack it with what I can do now and make incremental improvements. Will probably start w/a pressure wash, round-up whatever's left, then polymeric sand. Add a pre-e and see what happens. Maybe only do pre-e on half of the area as an experiment to see what difference it makes.


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## Hayward G (Jun 29, 2017)

roundup. then torch


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## Rockinar (Jul 21, 2017)

I'm not a fan of Round Up. I try to avoid it if I can. In this case I might try to hit it with a weed burner and see what happens. Might even be fun.


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