The Narrow House
Ms. Parker’s Narrow House.
And… Here’s how to use a flamethrower on weeds:
A decent flamethrower with a little cart for the gas bottle costs around €100. Filling a gas bottle cost me €26. I got this one:
The main advantage is not having to use chemicals (glyphosate) twice a year.
My Mazamet 
We bought one of these in the spring and absolutely swear by it, no chemicals and no weeds on the drive or the old cobbled path which runs the full length of one flower bed.
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Ms. Parker shouldn’t have drunk that little vile labeled, “Drink me”
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Thanks for the pics, Pinky. I like the idea of not using chemicals [or weeding by hand] but I’m not sure I’d trust myself with one of those things. I assume you used it mainly for the driveway?
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I’ve used it twice now, yesterday and this morning, and I love it. You can keep the flame very low at first, until you’re more comfortable. It is mostly for the driveway, which goes around the entire house- so if it isn’t kept properly it really lets the side down. It took me about an hour yesterday to do a once over and then today I spent 30 minutes doing corners and more sensitive spots that are close to good plants.
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lol – I can definitely see the value of it – in saving your back if nothing else! But what about the ash leftover? Do you hose it down or does it just blow away after a while?
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Sorry but that looks way too cool to be legal :p
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The rule in France is if it’s behind closed doors (or tall walls) it’s legal 😀
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Great rule :p
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Yeah, I had a neighbour with a large gravel drive use the flame method (boiling water works, too) and we thought the darkened parts after a treatment on the gravel took away from the aesthetics. It looked dirty for weeks. To compensate, he’d just add more gravel to cover up the smudged bits so that after a dozen years his drive was way to thick with loose gravel. He also made the mistake of using the flame thrower on his yard to get rid of some particularly populous weeds with deep roots and managed to start an underground fire when some dry roots from a removed tree turned into slow moving embers. He then had to excavate his yard to put out the fire. Seems fire bans really based on good reasons! After his yard was turned over into piles of dirt, we’re pretty sure it looked better with a few weeds.
Our solution was to put the loose gravel parts of the drive into dappled shade and entice different kinds of moss. No weeds, much greenery, and no mowing. Feels lovely on the toes. Of course, the packed gravel parts never allowed any weeds to take root but many people don’t or won’t do that hard work at the front end but have to deal with weeds ever after. The same is true for brick and stone patios and driveways and courtyards, but like painting walls, 90% of the work is in the preparation.
Glad you like your new toy. Do try not to burn your house down.
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Wow! That underground simmer sounds like something we get after a bushfire 😦
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Yeah, it just needs a surface-to-underground wick to get going. We have underground fires – peat and coal beds are the worst – that smolder for years and are impossible to put out once conditions get really dry – usually started by a stupidly placed camp fire – so my neighbour’s lucky to be able to dig up the roots responsible. It’s just that sometimes people don’t think of potential unintended consequences and using fire to go after weeds may sound pretty cool but there’s gotta be a better and longer lasting solution.
(I had a brother pour gallons of gasoline on a gravel driveway he was to weed and then strike a match. Ahem. Not a clever teenager. He looked weird with no eyebrows and a red face standing on a blackened driveway dotted with green weeds but he was simply lucky to survive such a ‘solution’. Never one to be daunted by explosive danger, he moved on to creating a potato bazooka with multiple tennis ball canisters taped together, a pinhole near the bottom to squirt in the lighter fluid, and a supply of vegetables ammunition – mostly potatoes – once the tennis balls – mine, of course – were launched into low orbit. He never considered the recoil that drove the lowest canister deep into the flat and tarred roof. And so on…)
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Oh my god….did your brother survive childhood? Please don’t tell me he’s now a rocket scientist…. 😦
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Like people who become social workers to try to fix their own dysfunctional childhood, my brother had a significant brain injury at a young age and I think was determined to relive the trauma and fix himself the second time around (and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and the….). What’s remarkable is that I survived.
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Ah, I see. That must have made growing up hard…for both of you.
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On the bright side, a life long interest in how the brain works. On the dark, learning to sleep with one eye open.
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Mmmm….there are easier ways of becoming interested in the brain. But then I’m sure you know that. -hugs-
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I’ll have a proper review of efficiency in a few days 😀 It’s only day 3- which means inconclusive right now.
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I don’t think those flamethrowers are legal where I live because too many people would try to light their cigarettes with them.
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Have you been inside that tiny house? The flamethrower does look fun to use, but the man in the video is annoying me as he is wasting the gas. I’ve been yelling ‘burn something’ at him, but he wasn’t listening.
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Sheesh – I raise my eyebrows at leaf-blowers. . .
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How do you control weeds?
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Well, MM, how did the flamethrowing work out for you?
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Pictures coming soon!
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The old fashioned way – pull ’em! Or put up with ’em. For instance, we love dandelions and a neighbour of ours can be seen early in the season, pulling up every one she finds. We aren’t the sort to have a well-manicured lawn. In fact, we tilled up the front lawn and put another veggie garden in. Less to mow (we still mow with a push mower – no lawn tractor for us!) and much better use of the space.
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Not a big fan of grass, either; to me, it’s just a preferred weed that still requires way too much effort… not that a vegee garden doesn’t require a lot of work, but at least it has the potential to reward your efforts (assuming one simply isn’t feeding the local rodent and bird population).
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I don’t mind sharing with the birds, but we had a persistent woodchuck once. We wouldn’t have minded if he had eaten one squash but he had to take bites out of all of them. .. Thankfully, next season he had moved on to the neighbour’s veggie patch.
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Oh, and Tildeb – I agree with you about grass. It’s amazing how many people looooove to get on their ride-on tractors and spend hours mowing, though! Around our place (mostly retired folks) it’s a hobby, I swear!
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I’ve noticed in my area that the size of the lawn mower tractor the home owner uses is inversely proportional to the size of the lawn.
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Do you not have undocumented immigrants where you live? 😛
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We enjoy doing outdoor tasks! I’d much rather be outdoors than doing housework (ick).
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