Gas Burner for Weeding

[milly143]

I just had a guy round removing all the ivy we have and asked him what he suggested I use to get rid of all the weeds appearing in the shingle in the garden as the weed killers I have tried didn't work. He suggest a little hand held gas thing that just burns it all but I can't remember what he called it and not having much joy finding one on line with that description. Any guesses?

[merciasounds]

I've just googled 'Hand held weed burners' and got loads of info up - try it!

[Ratty2E]

I think this is what you are after
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000LFRRFK
I have used one it was goodon some weeds but didn't really touch the small tufts of grass that seem to appear everywhere as if by magic

[woofgang]

brilliant items for small areas, I have one for whacking nettles with. If you have a large area to do, you can rent or buy a bigger one.
http://www.mowermagic...Ijr4qcCFUEb4QodyFxu-g

if there is anything like dry leaves or grass laying around then wet the area well down first before using a weed burner though!!!!

[milly143]

Thanks for all the answers. No idea why my search was so hopeless. It's only a small garden that's all shingle with the exception of 4 planting boxes in the middle so I might try a cheap one first and see how I get on with that.

There is nothing but mud under the shingle, no membrane or anything. It's a rented house so I'm not really willing to fork out a lot of money getting it all done properly. I just want to tidy it up a bit as its a mess.

[milly143]

hhhmm, good point. This is what annoys me a bit. I'm told the guy that used to own the house was very green fingered which seems to mean planting every spare inching of wall/fence space with ivy - around the entire house and laying down shingle across the entire garden without using anything to prevent weeds growing. I'm the least green fingered person I know and even I knew you should put something between the soil and the shingle.

[milly143]

oohhh roughly about 220sq ft.

[Graham-W]

I was going to suggest Sodium Chlorate as a long lasting weed killer but I find it is now banned.
(still available on e-bay)

[milly143]

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look into and see how much it's likely to cost me. I'll probably need to buy more shingle too to cover a few gaps that are appearing for some reason.

Graham, I'm not sure that sounds particularly cat friendly....

[milly143]

Ah, yes I see. So, if I were to get some of that....Would I just rake up the shingle that's already down, line the mud with the membrane and then relay the shingle on top? Could I lay it over the existing weeds or would I need to remove them first? Sorry for all the questions, not very good with this sort of thing.

[woofgang]

that depends on how much shingle has vanished, how level it is and whether its at ground level ie if you laid stuff on top of it, would it just fall off at the edges? What you could do while you decide what to do is get Pathclear weedkiller and put that all over the shingle. It clears existing weeds and prevents seed germination so would tidy it up and keep it tidy. Weed seeds will still germinate in shingle over membrane but have short roots and are much easier to deal with.