Landowners have a duty to keep the sidewalk belonging to the house free of weeds. But if you reach for the chemical club, you risk hefty fines.
Spring is finally approaching, everywhere it is green and sprouting again - even the weeds between the pavement slabs hated by homeowners. According to the law, residents must clear the sidewalk belonging to the house not only from snow, leaves and other debris, but also from weeds. But anyone who tackles dandelions, barley and the like on the pavement with herbicides must expect severe penalties.
Weed destruction on the sidewalk: fines of up to 50,000 euros
Weeds need to be removed from sidewalks – but not every method is legal. © F. Hecker/blickwinkel/IMAGO
According to the law, the use of pesticides is only permitted on land that is used for agriculture, forestry or horticulture. On the other hand, weed killers are prohibited, especially on paved surfaces or paving stones. Even if they are approved for private use or provided with an organic seal.
Sounds difficult to understand at first when you are legally allowed to use the same products one meter further in your front yard. But this is not arbitrariness on the part of the authorities. In your front yard, the herbicides can seep into the soil. There they are naturally filtered out by the soil. However, on sealed surfaces, rain can simply wash off the funds. In this way, they end up in the sewer system and possibly in the groundwater and drinking water via the waterworks. This is because not all substances can be completely filtered out by today's sewage treatment plants. Therefore, the use of weed killers on sealed surfaces can be punished with severe fines of up to 50,000 euros.
Vinegar and salt – old home remedies with an uncertain legal situation
Vinegar and salt are cheap and proven home remedies for weeds. Both make the earth uninhabitable for plants. Legally, they are considered food and not weed killers, but there have already been court cases about their use on sealed surfaces. So you can probably expect punishment even with these supposedly harmless means. The same applies to baking soda – even though baking soda is a tried and tested home remedy in the garden. However, there is another natural and sustainable solution, but one that requires some work: How about greening the paving joints, for example with broken herb or Corsican mint?
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Fighting weeds with fire and water
If the pavement slabs are small, several meters of joints quickly accumulate in front of a house. And especially in summer, the driving force of nature can be relentless here. If you don't want to pluck out every weed by hand, you can use a joint scraper or a root brush. This is even more sustainable, as you will also catch parts of the roots.
If you can't physically kneel on stone slabs for hours, or simply want to save yourself the work, use a high-pressure cleaner. It even removes most other dirt from the paving stones - but often also some soil from the joints. If the investment is too high for you, you can also borrow the device on a daily basis at the hardware store.
Or they tackle the uncontrolled growth with fire. If you use a special gas burner for weeds from the hardware store for this, you can save a lot of time. Burning the whole plant also prevents the spread of seeds in the area. However, you should make sure that the flames do not spread to plants or dry material in the area.
Sometimes a hard broom will do the trick
If you want to make it particularly easy for yourself, sweep the sidewalk regularly with a hard broom. In the process, most of the larger plants are bent and growth is greatly reduced overall. The result usually looks less neat – but the public order office only imposes fines if the use of the sidewalk is impaired. The curb must therefore be easily passable on foot, with a stroller or a wheelchair.
If this is too time-consuming for you, you can hire a cleaning company. This takes care of a clean sidewalk in all seasons and removes the weeds at the same time. Cleaning usually costs less than ten euros a month for ten front meters.
