What to put underneath a rock lawn to keep grass/weeds from growing through?
I am putting a rock lawn in by myself when it cools down. I need to know what is the best fabric, brand name and where to get it, to put underneath these rocks so that I won’t have grass and weeds coming through. Most of my neighbors who have rock lawns have grass that grew through. Black plastic is not an option, as I live in Vegas and it will melt. Any ideas for other substances that I can put down to keep the grass/weeds from growing through? The last thing I want is to have to take all the rocks out and redo it because the fabric didn’t work.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:38 am
Kmart and Walmart have a fabric to put down. Don’t know what the brand name is, but it works.
August 1st, 2010 at 10:07 am
Why waste money on fabric or plastic? The fabric eventually rots away. Spray a general purpose herbicide to kill all vegetation. Salt will also do the trick, if you’d rather not use harsh chemicals.
If you “accidentally” spill a can of gas, I can guarantee you that grass won’t grow there for a long time.
August 1st, 2010 at 10:12 am
Weed fabric – any brand by a reputable company with a name you know from other garden products. Be sure to anchor it with stakes, and cover with a nice thick layer of either ulch or pea gravel sized river rock. Anything that makes it thru that can be a real miracle, and can killed with either weed killer or boiling water.
August 1st, 2010 at 10:56 am
Black plastic does not work anyway. I bought some stuff from a garden center that had fiberglass in it and it works great! I was told from my sister that layers of newspaper works very well and things will not grow through it either. I have not tried this myself though.
the stuff with the fiberglass was like a black plastic but had fibers going through it too. I think this would work quite well in Vegas. Nothing grows through it in Kansas.
August 1st, 2010 at 11:22 am
Any of the fabrics will work. Be sure to put at least 3″ of rock on top, 6″ would be better.
However, dust blowing in the air will settle on and under the rocks and on top of the fabric. Then seeds blowing in the air will find the dust, germinate and grow. So you will need to occasionally weed the rocks, the weeds will pull out easily as they will be shallow. Or you will need to use a weed killer. But you won’t need to remove the fabric.
August 1st, 2010 at 11:51 am
If you are absolutely sure that you don’t want anything to grow there, here are some hints:
Spray area with high concentrations of vinegar or a broad spectrum plant killer that will damage the soil.
place layers of newspaper over this,
add a layer of pvc pond liner that is rated for extemely high temperatures.
Finally add a layer of sand to help with leveling the rocks.
Hope this helps.
You can skip the newspaper layer if you like since it breaks down over time anyways.