Easily Remove Weeds In Driveway Cracks With A Must-Have Tool
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Your concrete driveway has one crucial weakness: the cracks. Weeds spread better than most other plants, traveling by wind, birds, or even just existing in the soil prior to your concrete. When weeds begin to grow in your driveway's cracks, they can start to damage the concrete they're growing in. As the weeds push up through the cracks, the concrete begins to deteriorate over time and lose its integrity. To preserve the strength of your driveway and easily rid your concrete cracks of their pesky inhabitants, you need a crack weeder.
A crack weeder is a thin blade with a hooked end shaped like an "L." A variation of a hook knife, a crack weeder can have a serrated edge along the inside of its hooked angle and a straight edge along the outside. The tool, also known as a patio knife, is intended for removing weeds in hard-to-reach places without leaving any trace for the weeds to grow back. You can buy a small version like the 13 inch Grebstk Crack Weeder, or buy a longer version to prevent bending over so much, like the Baraystus Long Handle Crack Weeder.
How to use a crack weeder on your driveway
Knowing how to keep weeds at bay in your concrete is important, but crack weeders make the job easy. They are a fairly self-explanatory tool, as all you have to do is insert the knife into the crack of your concrete driveway and cut the weeds out in a scooping motion, removing the weeds from the crack. You want to make sure to go as deep as you can to sever the weeds at the root and remove as much of the plant as you can. Due to the hooked nature of the knife, you should be able to scoop out the whole weed from the crack. Be careful not to break and disturb the plant too much, though, as you do not want to release more seeds and have to repeat the process in a few weeks.
A short crack weeder will force you to get down on your knees to remove the weeds; however, you will have much more control over the tool. If you have issues with your body and bending over in that manner, a long-handle crack weeder will allow you to remove the weeds while standing up. You will not have as much control over the tool, though, and you could risk releasing more seeds into the cracks. If you are looking for other methods of addressing weeds, there is a kitchen staple that'll help keep weeds from growing in the first place, or you could try to banish weeds with the help of a clever HGTV method.