Thanks for the list and the reply, the only trees or other growth i have in the yard other than grass, are 3 crape myrtle's and they seen to be at least moderately salt tolerant which is great. I also feed them all the time so that should help them overcome the slury im hoping.

I have to do something, i cant continue to spend what im spending on weed killer that im spending, even the homemade kind gets expensive as alot of it is needed. Also burning them is also expensive because propane is expensive.

So i feel im backed into a corner here. The parking area is getting overrun with weeds. Yesterday i dug up 3 wheel barrows of weeds in a 10x10 area, there was a layer of weeds under the weeds.

I still have the rest of the lot to go and it tears my body up doing that labor. I want to be sure my sweat equity is not waisted, so im up for doing something drastic to get rid of them and keep them away for a few years. I even thought about saturing the soil with muratic acid or something similar.

In a few words, it won't work. There are plenty of plants that can tolerate salty conditions and will happily grow, you'll just select for those. And in wetter environments, your soil will flush out comparatively quickly.

Saline soils are a problem in arid and marine environments due to very low rainfall and constant salt concentration but aren't in most others due to flushing by normal rainfall.

There are any number of solutions, including landscape paper (workable, if unreliable at times), landscape plastic, tarmac, driveway, brick, and so on.

But as far as soil goes, soils grow plants. All soils. Even sodic ones.

There are a few ways to render soils unable to grow anything, but most are problematic in terms of your handling the chemicals as well, not to mention prohibitively expensive, so...

OK thanks :)

Hey morpheus, does Borax work on weeds, or just grass?

Borax works on everything, but there's a caveat here...

Plants, like human beings who have been given a poison, have various levels of resistance. And plants have wider genetics than humans do, because they're different species. Some species are very tolerant. Others are not.

Grasses tend to be pretty tolerant of boron concentrations while some weeds are much less tolerant. There's a window in there where you could, theoretically, kill the weed...but not the grass.

The warning in that case is that the window in question is damned fine. We're talking 2 to 5 PPM, depending on the plant and the sensitivity. Most will be closer to 2, and we're not saying the grass is going to be happy with the concentration of borax that kills the weed, either. It's tolerant. Like you might be tolerant of a non-fatal dose of arsenic, nobody's saying you'll be happy about it...

Not that I'm saying boron is toxic to you, it's not particularly so. Borax is about as toxic as table salt, and tastes far worse. :-)

So I can't say I'm a fan of the Creative Chemistry solution to weed control. While occasionally problematic, we did come up with the chemistry we did for these tasks for a reason; they exploit pathways that the plants we want to spare simply don't have, or don't have in the manner that the plants we're killing do. Just make sure to wear appropriate protective equipment and bathe immediately after use regardless of what you use.

Borax is just another sodium compound. Again, avoid adding a lot of sodium to your soil.

If it's a parking lot that you can't plant over...probably the easiest solution would be to lay clean (all tape & stickers removed) cardboard and then wood mulch on top of it.

Or obtain old carpeting (perhaps call a carpet company and offer to haul off the old carpet for them) and lay it bottom side up covering the area. Not sure if it would look too messy, but it's the only think I can think of to insure nothing grows there for awhile.

I love the carpet idea, but question, do y'all have fire ants and would they be attracted to living under that carpet? We don't have fire ants, but the nasty (non biting) ants we do have LOVE weed cloth and the plastic sheeting I put under my potted roses to help keep the Bermuda and centipede grass out of them.

I don't understand why you are spending so much money to control weeds in a driveway. I have a 200 ft gravel drive and a parking area that is about 40 x 40 ft. I spray for weeds as needed but I doubt that I have spent $100. over the last 5 years. Maybe if you explain what you are using I can help you find better products.

I have a similar problem, I maintain a community garden that is constantly being over run by bermuda grass from outside our fenced area. It's brutal. We lay cardboard down and lots of mulch for our pathways but the grass just finds it way through seams in the cardboard and through the fence. I've tried solarizing, salt, 20% vinegar, grass be gone, everything. It's a never ending battle.

To answer your question about why i was spending so much money on roundup. Its about $20 for each refill, At the time we were getting alot of rain so i had to spay often and it takes almost two gal to do the whole lot (not just the driveway). There were weeds under the weeds, plus with all the rain there were times it washed it off., I live in a community with HOA and they are very serious about keeping weeds down and a fine if you dont do it. So during that time i was using about 5 gal a month of the weed and grass killer from roundup.

This is another reason i cant use carpet (HOA rules) they dont even want to see tarps or anything hung up or laying around. Besides i have seen weeds grow through carpet.

I am now back to using my homemade mix. I realized that i was applying it wrong. I was applying it as i did the roundup by spritzing the plants because roundup works on the biology of the plant. But with the homemade stuff you have to soak the plant. I count to 4 over each plant with my sprayer full open.

Applying it this way assues it covers the whole palnt which is how it works, it blocks the plant from obsorbing water and the acid in the vinegar kills the plant. The other day in a 10x10 foot section covered in thick weeds i appyed the homemade stuff at 6am and by 12 noon they were all dead. So i just need need to get rid of them and then just keep up with them after that.

David, this is what I use. "Ultra Kill Weed & Grass Killer". It is 41% glyphosate and it makes 85 gallons. The bottle is under $40. & it lasts at least 2 years for me. I also use

"Spectracide Weed Stop". It is $5-6 per bottle. That is for the broadleaf weeds that the Roundup generic does not kill. You will need to purchase a pump up sprayer that will run you $10-20. That is all you need & you will be good for several years before you have to repurchase anything. I live on 2 acres so I use a lot more then you. Good luck!

BTW, the vinegar usually provides top kill but many weeds will grow back from the roots.

Weed killers....too expensive...not healthy for the land...only a temporary measure..just another thing to do....one option is to put down some weed cloth and cover it with pea gravel or decorative mulch...

Well ..it is a little different if you are doing a whole driveway...with so little info any suggestion is sort of a guess....one possibility is to get your driveway done with road base....we have no weeds on our drive way after 19 years ...

Round-Up or other glyphosate herbicides don't wash off as long as it has been allowed to be absorbed by the plant for a short time. That interval will be on the label and is dependent upon the formulation of the particular product.

David, if you would follow the instructions for Roundup, you would not have any weeds.

Why are you spraying before a rain?

Roundup has a 30 min before rain, generics are often 2 hrs before rain. If you spray before a rain: what did you expect?

100 sq feet does not cost $20 to treat, you know that, $20 worth of round up treats 600-900 sq feet.

We used to have a pro spray our acreage for weeds..using commercial strength round up...he had to come every year...it is not a permanent solution...

FWIW, there are commercially available chemicals that prevent weeds.

I have used surflan.

Roger Cook from this old house says not to use fabric because anything you put down will rot eventually and then you will have rotten nasty soil under it. He said that if anything just use newspaper because it is biodegradable.

As to the rain i had to do something at the time because every rain more and more would appear. Many times we only had 20-30 percent chance so i sprayed and sometimes it rained anyway, bad luck.

Also i would kill one section and another section would explode into life, it was if everything was spawning at once at that time.

Here is the lot, this was taken when i had it somewhat under control and nice lines on both sides, the lines are gone now and its covered still.

Aha! This is a much different situation than 10x10 square...it seems wide for a driveway....do you park a lot of cars there?...are you after a tidy weed-free drive with a nice defined border..or just want to be free of weeds?

I any case the road-base solution would be the best solution...the area is not that big ...a load of road-base dumped and spread..and rolled..will be solid...never get muddy or be a home to weeds...and will perform for probably 20 years as your drive is flat....any gravel yard should be able to give you an estimate over the phone ....and even a referral for someone who can do a good job...

Sorry when i said 10x10 i meant that i tested it a 10x10 area.

I checked on road base last week, way too expensive for me.. Since bricks are too expensive as well and i cant find any free ones, i will be pouring the border along the grass and driveway using concrete. I will pour a 3 inch wide by 50ft long by 4 inch high border on both sides to seperate the grass from the driveway.

I have my RV on there now. The local gravel yard has been selling me arkansas river rock for $52.00 a yard and if i put it 2-3 inch thick on the driveway the seeds wont get any sun and wont germinate, i hope. Its about 8 yards i think and $450 so ill have to save for it.

Here is what that 10x10 ft area looks like now after i use a hoe to dig up all the layers of weeds (3 wheel barrows full.

Remember that this lot was not maintained for many years so im just now tring to get things under control. When i bought the lot it was waist deep in grass, you could not even hardly see the driveway.

I dont have a recent pic of outside ill do one tomorrow.

By the way i am looking for ideas on landscaping, i thought about a fountain in the far left corner but the mesquitos would be horrible. So maybe something else could go there. I am open for sugestions. The bottom of the fence will be white latice 24inchs high. I am redoing the boards now, when i first put them up i just did so to keep them from bending too bad, now im putting them in place finally.