Weeds in brick walkway

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Power washing will remove sand between the bricks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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!

We have a brick walkway and patio. We never spray. The first year we spent a lot of time manually pulling and then using a spray that is a mixture of vinegar and salt. Now, once a week we do a quick once over and there is no need to do anything else.

[Anonymous]

I also tried boiling water. It didn't work (it did for a few days). Diluted vinegar did nothing. Pure vinegar out of the enormous jug worked well, but the weeds came back a month or so later. I'm back to pulling for now. :/

[Anonymous]

A weed killer recipe popped up on my Facebook feed:
1 gallon vinegar
2 cups Epsom salts
1/4 cup Dawn dish soap (blue original)

Mix and spray after the dew has evaporated. The weeds are supposed to be gone by evening.
I have no idea how good this is, I am going to try this weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A weed killer recipe popped up on my Facebook feed:
1 gallon vinegar
2 cups Epsom salts
1/4 cup Dawn dish soap (blue original)

Mix and spray after the dew has evaporated. The weeds are supposed to be gone by evening.
I have no idea how good this is, I am going to try this weekend.

Epsom salts are magnesium chloride. The best weed killer/soil sterilizer is good old table salt, sodium chloride. Combined with vinegar and applied heavily it will kill the weeds and sterilize the ground so don't use it where you want to kill weeds yet grow something else. So it is perfect for sidewalks, between pavers etc.

The dish soap in that recipe is just to help the mixture coat and cling to the weed. It can be omitted.

[Anonymous]

I think your cleaning idea is a good one but instead of just putting sand into the cracks you'll want to use special polymeric sand. The sand sticks to itself and forms a barrier and doesn't come out as easily

[Anonymous]

OP here-- thanks to everyone for these ideas. I'm concerned about using salt and vinegar etc. on bricks. Should I be? Will it damage them?

I found another solution. Somehow my kids, 8 and 5, have discovered the joy of pulling the wee weeds out of the cracks in the bricks. It's been working like a charm .