Weeds in brick walkway

[Anonymous]

We just moved to a new house which has a nice brick walkway in the backyard. But weeds are popping up in all of the cracks between the bricks, which were not installed with mortar. We have been manually pulling the weeds, but it feels like a lesson in futility.

My plan is to pull the weeds, try to remove as much organic matter I can with a broom and maybe power washing, then to put down sand in the cracks to try to reduce the weed growth. Is this likely to work? Any other strategies to use? Will we need to reapply the sand each year? (We garden organically so won't use weed killer.) Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We have the same problem. I'm going to try the boiling water method - that should kill the plants, and probably any other seeds down there!

[Anonymous]

We have been fighting the same thing for the past three years. We tried pulling, vinegar, boiling water, and have started on chemicals. Nothing seems to be working for us. I'm interested in what others say.

[Anonymous]

round up works best, boiling water is temporary and can ruin your stone or bricks.

[Anonymous]

embrace them, trim regularly or use chemicals

[Anonymous]

Boiling water poured on or vinegar (not diluted -- you need it 100%) sprayed or poured on the weeds work pretty well. Roundup is a temporary solution, too, since so many weeds are now resistant to it (not to mention it's a bad idea if you have pets or kids).

You can also cover the pavers with a mat for a few days (if it's a small area) to help kill the weeds by excluding sun from them.

[Anonymous]

OP here-- interesting that so many people are in the same boat!

Chemicals are not an option for us-- we have little kids and pets and I don't like to use them.

I am wondering if it's possible to put some sort of mortar down after the fact?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boiling water poured on or vinegar (not diluted -- you need it 100%) sprayed or poured on the weeds work pretty well. Roundup is a temporary solution, too, since so many weeds are now resistant to it (not to mention it's a bad idea if you have pets or kids).

You can also cover the pavers with a mat for a few days (if it's a small area) to help kill the weeds by excluding sun from them.

Where do you get 100% vinegar?

[Anonymous]

We resort to pulling them out or leaving them be. They'll die in winter anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boiling water poured on or vinegar (not diluted -- you need it 100%) sprayed or poured on the weeds work pretty well. Roundup is a temporary solution, too, since so many weeds are now resistant to it (not to mention it's a bad idea if you have pets or kids).

You can also cover the pavers with a mat for a few days (if it's a small area) to help kill the weeds by excluding sun from them.

Where do you get 100% vinegar?

I assume she means a bottle of vinegar not vinegar mixed with water. You can buy white vinegar in large bottles pretty inexpensively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:round up works best, boiling water is temporary and can ruin your stone or bricks.

How does it ruin bricks? I wonder if I do it on a hot day, they should be hot anyhow - hopefully not as much thermal shock.

[Anonymous]

DH power washes them away every few weeks.

[Anonymous]

Buy a heatgun(used for stripping paint). Use it to heat the plants and sand in between the cracks. It kills the seeds and plants. The first time doing it will require another pass a week later(which will not take very long b/c you are just get the ones that you missed the first time). After that it's every 3 months during the growing season.
No on power washing sand set walkway. If you lose sand b/t the bricks just place sand on top and sweep it around. Leaving some on top of the bricks and after a few rain storms it will work its way in.

[Anonymous]

Why no to power washing?

[Anonymous]

Putting sand down won't work. My advice is to:

1. make peace with plants between the bricks, or
2. get a weed torch.