Removing Weeds From The Paver Driveway

Perhaps this screenshot of our old header will give you a hint as to what we tackled in this outdoor update (which is most likely number 7 of 582, since we like to tackle outdoor stuff in bite-sized stages so we do not get too sore/overwhelmed or blow the budget)…

Yup, that is the Camellia tree that we first mentioned back in March (you folks in fact helped us identify it). It is a striking tree, but we have consistently bemoaned the fact that it was growing simply inches (perhaps even simply one inch?) from our foundation… which made us tres nervous about permanent damage if we allowed it to stay.

After showing it to a few plant expert friends of ours, they all recommended removing it asap so the root systems did not cause any issues. And we had to admit it was kinda like a bushy, overgrown sideburn on our home’s fairly little face anyway. You know, the tree equivalent to a mutton chop? Or perhaps one of those weird extra long “feeler” eyebrow hairs? Whatever the face-hair analogy you prefer, it was not good.

Unless you enjoy the whole tree-tickling-the-gutters look.

Long story short, we at last chose to serve Miss Camellia an eviction notice.

Our first instinct was of course to transplant it. We generally liked the look of it and figured there was no reason not to at least try to save this gal. So I got out my shovel and went to town on her for about 30 minutes. This is as far as I got:

It may look like progress, but certainly did not feel like it. The roots were so tight that it was hard to maneuver around them… and I was in constant fear of knocking out a brick or two from the house as I dug into the earth with some fairly serious force (we have quite dense hard soil here). So after about another hour of digging (where we discovered simply how close some of the roots and the foundation truly were) and some thoughtful discussion, we knew what we had to do. We apologized, told her we had done our best and that it was simply the wrong time and (more importantly) the wrong place… and I got the saw. It was sad, but it was necessary. And we made a promise to plant another camellia somewhere in the backyard in memory of our gutter-tickling friend.

When it came to the removal process, first I took off the big limbs and then I spent the bulk of my time sawing through the trunk right at ground level. About another 30 minutes later, I was left with this little stump that (after snapping this pic) would be low sufficient to bury with level dirt so it would not be seen. I contemplated further cutting it out, but was still waaay too nervous to upset the ground more around the foundation, so I chose simply to leave it be and cover it up with dirt so everything was pleasant and level.

I generally do not like cutting down perfectly healthy trees. At all. So this bummed me and Sherry out more than we should likely admit. But we consoled ourselves with the fact that we had already planted six new trees since moving in (remember these) and reminded ourselves that removing this one poorly placed camellia meant that we were making room for new better-fitting plantings in that spot, that would, among other things, not lean on our house or threaten our home’s foundation.

The replacement plantings will certainly be smaller and more low-profile. It is our general theory that short stout houses like ours need lower, airier landscaping to assist them look taller (aka: not so darned squat). Our last house was so weighed down with a a heavy row of azalea bushes when we moved in that it practically made the thing seem half as high (see how we remedied that in this old post). So taking out this taller-than-the-house tree helped us earn back some much needed visual height (thanks to the fact that a compact tree no longer towered over our house, making it appear even shorter).

Though when I stepped back I realized that one quite overgrown bush was undoing all of my hard work. Sheesh. You know you are in trouble when a bush is taller than your house.

So I gave him a little haircut with the ol’ clippers.

Not remarkable at all. But better. That whole swarm of bushes is something that we’d enjoy to transplant in order to open things up as we go. We are in fact truly looking forward to revamping our front yard because the house still feels quite closed off to us. Fairly much the only thing not blocked by greenery is the carport, which (though it has grown on me) is not exactly the part of our home that I want to highlight (we still quite much look forward to turning that into a proper garage down the line).

Perhaps now that it has cooled off a bit we will at last gain some momentum outside. Heck, late last week was so striking that Sherry did some weeding in the driveway to keep me company (and Clara and Burger “helped” – which means they pranced/toddled around and played with sticks/leaves). And yes, I did simply say that Sherry did some driveway weeding. As much as we enjoy our double-wide paver driveway, the fact that we are one of the few folks who have to weed our driveway does not escape us (as opposed to all the blissfully weed-free paved ones out there).

See, the driveway is quite long. And, thanks to the weed-friendly paver-ness of all those cracks, it is proving to be fairly impossible to keep free of especially annoying green sprouts. We are not down with those chemical spray-on weed killers since we have a bean and a pup who play outside (they are not supposed to be strong for the planet either), but we have done our fair share of research when it comes to more natural weed killing alternatives like these:

• Pouring boiling water on them
• Using course driveway salt
• Implementing a mixture involving vinegar

Sadly after a bit more research (like calling the paver manufacturer directly) we have learned that using salt or vinegar on our pavers can permanently damage them (leading to erosion, cracking, etc). So we have only tried the first method (using gallons of scalding water from the stove repeatedly dumped over various sections of the driveway). The result? Cue the sad trombone sound effect. It did not do nada. Even after waiting a few days (holding out hope that it might take a while to burn down to the root or something) those weeds were still sitting there smiling up at us. Grr.

So we chose to give up on the boiling-pots-and-pots-of-water technique and resort to good old fashioned hand-pulling every so frequently. Which is not exactly every day (yup, we are those neighbors with the weedy driveway). So if you ever come over, forgive us if the front of our driveway looks like this (here is hoping it is at least partially weeded, which seems to be our pattern). And perhaps someday we will get around to using polymeric sand which is supposed to cut down on weeds…

Okay, now someone make me feel better about having to take out the camellia. Has anyone else has had to move/remove a tree or other planting that was not working for them? And if you’ve ever had success moving a tree with dense tight roots right near the foundation, what are your pointers? I simply could not keep digging away without crippling do not-break-the-house anxiety. We’d also enjoy any and all driveway weeding pointers. Especially the all natural ones that might be more paver-friendly than salt and vinegar.