My neighbor laughed at me for putting landscape fabric under my gravel path and now the weeds are pushing through everywhere

I spent $120 on that heavy duty fabric last spring and installed it exactly like he said not to, but now 8 months later the bindweed is punching right through it in the Denver rain - has anyone found a way to stop this stuff without digging the whole thing up?

3 comments

3 Comments

bens8116d ago

The landscape fabric's a scam honestly, the bindweed roots just find the microscopic gaps and push through. You gotta understand it's not about the fabric itself, it's the weed barrier fabric's pore size against bindweed's root tips. I dug mine up in Lakewood and laid down two layers of 6 mil black plastic with drainage slits cut every foot, then a thick layer of crusher fines on top. The plastic blocks everything but the crusher fines lock together so the plastic doesn't get sun damaged. Bindweed can't punch through solid poly like it does through fabric.

phoenix33116d ago

Wait @bens81 you dug up your whole yard in Lakewood just for this?

martin.paige16d ago

I had the exact same problem with my path in Aurora, bens81 is totally right about the fabric being useless. I used that premium stuff too and within a year the bindweed was coming through like it wasn't even there. I ended up doing something similar but with a thick layer of old rubber roofing membrane I found on Facebook Marketplace, it's like half an inch thick and nothing gets through it. The key is you need a solid barrier, not woven fabric, those tiny roots find any hole no matter how small. I put down crusher fines on top of the membrane just like you said and it's been bone dry weed free for two years now. The bindweed in Denver is no joke, it laughs at that fancy fabric and just pokes right through like it's nothing.