Algae

[Brooklynodog]

I appreciate this question isnt really a kitchen garden one, so I hope the administrator will indulge me? I have an area of back garden covered with cotswold stone chippings. They have been down 3 years and have steadily turned from cream to greeny/brown with algae. Bearing in mind I have a dog, how can I return these chippings to their original colour (or near to it)?
Thanks

[oldherbaceous]

I'm sure this subject has been discussed before, i'm not sure what the outcome was, but i'm sure that somebody will.

[Tigger]

What about trying a Jet washer?

[Primrose]

This solution probably won't be appropriate for a large area of garden covered with stone chippings but last Spring we had a pebble fountain with a large number of big pebbles. The stones, which were mostly a beige shade had become very dirty and covered with geen and black algae. I removed them, soaked them all overnight in a variety of buckets containing a light bleach solution. This removed virtually all the dirt and staining and after rinsing them they came up like new. How you could do this with your chippings I'm not sure unless you sprayed them with a watering can with water containing bleach on a day when they weren't likely to dry out too quickly to give the bleack time to work but I'd then be worried about this contaminating the soil underneath (and you wouldn't want your dog licking them). The only other time-consuming alternative would be to scoop up a small area at a time into containers and clean them piecemail.

[Gilly C]

Algon is good you spray it on then leave the rain washes it off, we use it and we have 3 dogs

[Brooklynodog]

Sounds good and worth a try. I havent seen it in my local garden centre though. I`ll try mail order from Kays or some such. Thanks

[Mike Vogel]

If you are worried about chemicals in bleach, you might want to consider getting a bokashi binor two. The fluid produced by bokashi composting is said to be good for keeping drains clean and clear, so it might be good as a cleaning agent on your stones.

mike