Week forty-seven: our brick driveway

So the other day I came across this picture of a brick driveway and I wanted to cry. Look at how WEED-FREE it is! (via Katy Elliott)

And then...  look at mine...

Doesn't that just make you want to cry?? Is it just me??

We tried managing the weeds without using pesticides. We pulled all the weeds in this area a few weeks ago, and, well, this is what it looks like now...  

Failboat.

We tried using one of those weed sprays that says it kills everything but grass, but that only killed half the weeds.

So I got fed up and visited my local garden center to ask advice. They recommended this crazy florescent blue stuff that you have to spray by hand, like one squirt at a time, and even though it's exhausting hard work, it really does the job. Within a couple of days, the weeds start to turn brown, and by a week, they're completely dead. Of course, then the dead weeds still need to be pulled out one by one, but at least they're dead.

This is my driveway now...

Much better, right? 

This hasn't all been weeded yet, so it'll be even better once we do that. And there are a few little patches that I missed and re-sprayed today. 

I think we're definitely gaining momentum in the war against driveway weeds.

What we've learned: hoping the weeds will magically go away does not work. Pulling weeds alone does not work. Weed sprays that are safe on grass do not work. Next year we will spray the whole driveway much earlier in the Spring, because those dumb weeds seriously showed up overnight. Then we'll plan on re-spraying the entire driveway at least a couple more times throughout the summer.  

Take that, driveway weeds!