is it true, that if i put salt in a flowerbeds top soil it will stop anything growing??

Question

trying to stop weeds and other plants growing under a rockery in me garden. once heard that salt poisons the ground and stops anything from growin, any idea if its true???

Answer 1

Yes, salt will kill weeds and plants in your garden. It will also effectively poison the soil so nothing at all will grow. suggest you pull out your "rockery", lay down 7 - 9 layers of newspaper and recover with mulch, rocks....the paper creates an effective weed barrier saving your back and hands lots of hard work and will decompose over a long period of time adding nutrients to the soil.

Answer 2

Not entirely true. Have you seen the grass that grows by the beach. The soil and sand there is saturated with salt but they still grow. So does seaweed. Many plants, however, do not like salt but you can guarantee that the weeds won't bother too much. The best thing is to use a proprietary weedkiller on them. If you are averse to this use a blowtorch to burn them out and scorch the seeds or, failing that cover the ground with black plastic sheeting for a while as lack of light kills most plants including weeds and grass. When removed dig over the soil and star afresh. If any weeds appear subsequently pull them up but loosen the soil around them first to ensure you get the roots. If you contaminate your soil with salt it will affect future growth of flowering plants.

Answer 3

Yes but the plants in your rockery will suffer too.
The romans used to salt the fields of revolting inhabitants which meant they had no crops for about 7 years.
You could use a weed supressing sheeting and build your rockery on that.

Answer 4

It will certainly reduce the number of slugs and snails in the earth as well as many useful insects and bacteria. For rockeries, you can try a vinyl sheet laid between the rocks and covered with chippings. Plant your alpines, etc in holes in the vinyl. Come on it's all part of the gardening fun , hand weeding.

Answer 5

Yes of course it is true, how many weeds grow on the beach!!
This is the reason that salt water cannot be used to put out forest fires, ( yes I know they still do but its a case of lesser evil!!)
If you have done this bye bye flowers..
It may take 50 years or more to wash out the salt.

Answer 6

yes, until you have any prolonged heavy rain, then it will be diluted and washed away and do nothing, except maybe annoy any neighbour whose plants are damaged by the run off from your garden