Will Salting the Earth kill adjacent grass?

[Canadian 2.5RS]

I have a parking pad that has been taken over my weeds and other vegetative growth. I have tried round up but it worked like shit so I want to salt the earth so nothing will ever grow there again.

What I need to know is if the salt solution (basically just rock salt dissolved into water) I plan on using will eventually leech into the adjacent areas and kill my grass. I have outlined my back yard in the attached image for your reference.

Thanks Beyond.

[heavyD]

Not sure about salt but I guarantee that if you pour diesel over it nothing will ever grow there. Of course that's not environmentally friendly but you did say that you want nothing to grow there again.

[BlackArcher101]

What does the parking pad consist of? Bare dirt? Gravel? Gravel barely covering bare dirt?

[Canadian 2.5RS]

Gravel over dirt and sand. I dont know what you mean my "Bare" dirt. Some parts are a soil-like dirt and some parts are sandy-dirt.

I dont think I want to pour diesel on there. And I'm pretty sure that if the salt will leech into my lawn the diesel will too so I would rather go with salt.

Any other points of view?

:dunno:

[AndyL]

Anything you put down will leach around over time as rain/watering sinks in and moves the salt around. Always an issue with parking pads etc... Pour a concrete pad and you'll never have to worry about it again :)

Whether it'll cross under/through a 3'(?) sidewalk - hard to say...

[Canadian 2.5RS]

Originally posted by AndyL
Whether it'll cross under/through a 3'(?) sidewalk - hard to say...


That's kinda what I'm looking to find out.

[BrknFngrs]

Have you tried the more traditional approach of just using landscaping fabric?

[AndyL]

Largely dependant on the prep and sidewalk substrate configuration... Where the level of clay is and its slope is going to be the deciding factor here... Water's going to run downhill - dry crush will let it pass through fairly easily, so it really becomes a question of where that clay layer is, and which way it's sloping....

[JordanLotoski]

Get a weed torch from canadian tire. I just go one and its better then any chemical. It burns the weeds and kills them almost intantly

29.00 for the torch and 3.99 for the cans of propane

:thumbsup:

[freshprince1]

What Andy said was right.

If your sidewalk goes right down to the clay...you should be okay unless you put an incredible amount of sal down. If your yard slopes down from the pad to the grass you could have some migration of salt through the crush (gravel) layer under the sidewalk.

What you should try first is Round up and a Non-Selective herbicide. That should nuke anything you have there. Round Up s nice because it kills everything green but neutralizes when it hits the soil, so you'll have no residual effects over time.