Weed Control Products

 A couple of weeks ago I was asked to do a sponsored blog post for Roundup gel - never one to turn down an opportunity to blog about something new (I do sometimes find it hard to get inspiration) I jumped at the chance.

Now, it turns out that since then, we appear to have had pretty non stop rain. I had tried the gel a couple of times but I am pretty sure it got rained off before it had been there 2 minutes to be honest.  So, in light of the fact that this post has been waiting a while, and we have the promise of a dry afternoon, I have started again and will call this, somewhat optimistically, blog post #1 of 2 !

The reason I was happy to do this is that I don't really like using weedkillers or any other non-organic means of any kind of pest or weed control where I can help it.  I have chickens, and if I use spray weedkiller that means I have to be a lot more careful about where i let them roam, and what i do with rakings and cuttings. (My hens are my compost bins normally) So this seems ideal, a thicker consistency weed control product that I can apply more particularly, exactly where i want it.

It comes in a plastic container, a similar shape to a stick deodorant, (but bigger)

You take the lid off by squeezing two tabs either side of the container just under that green lip (I am saying that cos it took me a while to see them) and you get this:

(Well you get that when you have taken the foil protector off and clicked that blue button on the side for what seems like 50 times to get the gel up to the top)

We have a little bit of land next door that the chickens had had their run on a few months ago - the grass has all been cleared (they're good at that) but quite a large patch of deep rooted weeds have regrown):

The Roundup gel is easy to apply, and it tells you on the container how many "clicks" of gel you need for different types of weed.  It's sticky, thick consistency means it definitely does only go where you put it, but the downside to that is that i found you had to hold the back of the leaf to smear the gel on - that really wouldn't work for stinging nettles !! (Well, not without a good pair of gloves anyway).  I did try it on the lawn weeds as I have a lot of dandelion type weeds, and i was doing a review it seemed a good idea to try, but again the need to press fairly firmly against the leaf made the application difficult in those circumstances, and I think I got as much on the grass as i did on the weeds.  

My verdict for the application of the Roundup Gel weed killer is that for areas of a few, large weeds - bindweed, bramble, etc it would be great. It would negate the need to spray everything in sight, and if you were planning  something where you just needed to rid an area of a certain few large weeds, or if you have a rambling bramble climbing across your best perennial bed,  it would be perfect in terms of ease of application. But if you have a lot of dense weeds or small leaved weeds (it says it will do couch grass but i have no idea how you would apply it to something so thin and flexible, maybe using an old paint brush) then I don't think the gel would really be the right product.

Hopefully, if you tune back in in a fortnight or so I should be able to show you the result of it as a weed control product - well that's if it doesn't rain again of course.