Not Hand Pulling: There's A Way To Remove Weeds From Gravel Driveways All At Once

Are you feeling overwhelmed with the task of constantly hand-pulling weeds from your driveway? Or perhaps you haven't managed to stop weeds from growing in gravel without dangerous chemicals, and now there are a ton of them to pull. Thankfully, there's a way to get rid of large patches of weeds on your gravel driveway all at once with minimal effort. As long as you can do without using the driveway for a few weeks, getting rid of those weeds can take very little work by using a process known as solarization. All you need for this is a tarp or a large piece of clear plastic and some bricks or stones to keep it in place.

Soil solarization is highly effective because it uses the heat of the sun to bake the soil and the weeds that are already growing. Plastic tarps or sheeting trap moisture and heat close to the ground, creating ideal conditions for weed seeds to germinate. As the sun continues to bear down on these young plants and access to precipitation is cut off, the emerging plants die. Using clear plastic or tarps during the hottest part of the year means that it should only take about two to three weeks to clear your gravel driveway of weeds. However, in cooler areas, it might take longer. If all you can get hold of is black plastic or an opaque tarp, you'll find that the entire process may take four to six weeks. Using opaque materials for this is known as occultation.

For the best results, you want to solarize your gravel driveway during summer when the sun is going to be at its hottest. Try to get hold of a large sheet of clear plastic or a clear tarp, if you can, as this allows the heat to penetrate to the ground beneath. Moist soil transfers heat more effectively than dry soil, so watering the area beforehand — or timing the project after a rainfall — can improve results. Stretch the plastic over the gravel and use some heavy bricks or rocks to hold it down, so it won't blow away. If your driveway is long, you can do this in stages. Similarly, you can use this method to clear a patch of lawn so you can turn it into a flower bed.

If the weed-filled part of your gravel driveway is not in full sun, occultation may be the better option. This won't allow the sun to bake the weeds, but it will effectively block light from reaching them, causing them to die. However, you'll find that this won't kill any weed seeds that are still hiding in the soil. The main advantages of this are that you can use a tarp you already have on hand and opaque materials aren't going to be as brittle as clear plastic will be. Using black plastic sheeting is also a simple fix for getting rid of fast-spreading poison ivy, so once you finish weeding the driveway, you can reuse the sheeting in other areas of your yard.