something to chew on and opinion on

ok heres the project, im finally starting to walk again,on this foot, but not far, up in town there is a subdivison i do roadway mowing for, not a problem until they opened a new branch of it...this one is steep, like a rise of 900 ft in less than 1/2 mile steep, the road is cut up in a switchback style up the face of the mountain and its right of way is lined with rip rap rock all the way to keep erosion to a minimum [ rocks about 12 inches in diameter] the south of the boarder crew that installed all this never used any weed barrier, so now the whole way has grass and weeds 4 feet tall average growing up thick and ugly and the owners want it mowed, yeah buddy! i cant use weed killer due to run off damage to the fine yards on houses below this branch of the subdivision, the roadway ditch is not flat it varys between u shaped to uneven level, so that, and the rocks means a cyclebar mower will get damaged [ the mower will have to hang to the side of the tractor, not behind it like a bruch hog] there are no side mounted flail mowers around here,i cant walk enough to use a hand carry brush saw i have, so anybody have any ideas ive overlooked???

Tell them no

Weed killer is the only answer. Rocks cannot be mowed with anything other than a string trimmer. I'd let that "south of the border" crew that laid down the rocks figure out how to control the weeds and grass.

i would, but they have all gone back south of the boarder it figures, guess the h.o.a. will maybe figure out for thast kind of work you pay for cheap, you get cheap lol

i had thought about taking the wheels off one of those wheeled trimmers there so proud of and mounting it on one side of the belly mower on my '49 cub, but the more i thought about it i dont think it would stick out far enough and im sure it wouldnt do the cub any good either

Roundup won't run off and if it isn't sprayed on there lawns it wont kill them. So its roundup or say no.

"i cant use weed killer due to run off damage to the fine yards"

Use Roundup. There's no runoff issue with that.

i'd tell em no. put your energy into finding some other jobs instead.

Know anyone with some goats to rent out?

Maybe next year they can sow some crown vetch or some type of ornamental ground cover in the rocks. Then too, the weed roots may be helping to hold the ditch from washing out. Spraying and having a half mile of tall, dead weeds may look worse than if they were just left alone.

I use the "generic" roundup - glyphosate. As other said, no runoff problem, as it basically kills contact of the vegetation. A couple applications/year will probably be all that is necessary, but it will be somewhat unattractive after it is dead. Prices have really gone up, as I purchased that size for about half that a couple years ago.
Glyphosate less expensive than roundup

I apply at the rate of 2 oz. per gallon of water. I usually add some dish soap as well to help penetrate, but it usually has some surfactant in it. Helps keep if from beading up and running off the leaves of the plant. Don't expect it to be dying in 24 hours, and don't spray when rain is predicted, but dew actually helps the process. I usually see it turning yellow in 3-5 days, or a week. In two weeks it is brown.