On topic, many years ago, where I lived with then-hubby had a beautiful cobbled stableyard. Many teeny weeds grew in amongst the cobblestones, which I thought gave a beautiful multi-coloured softening effect. However, hubby wanted to see the cobbles, and wanted to decimate the weeds - but neither of us wanted to use noxious chemicals.
I tried the flame-thrower, hand-weeding, mulch-mats, to no avail. (Scorched no longer beautiful multi-coloured - but still not clear cobbles; hand-weeding worked, of course, but took an hour per half square metre, and needed repeating about once every three weeks - there weren't enough of us, plus we had jobs!; matting much more unpleasant to look at than the weeds, which regrew within weeks when the mat was removed.)
At a gardening show I asked the ladies on the HDRA (now Garden Organic) stand for their advice. "Simple." they said. "Change the hubby."
Turned out, they were right!