I’ve used three different types of weed cloth (none that have been called “commercial” grade) for under walkway applications. The four types of weeds that I fight are wild violet, wild onion, crab grass and clover. My first attempt was with a woven cloth and that was a complete failure. Weeds, particularly pointy ones like wild onion grew up through it and weed seed was also able to work down to it though the mulch and germinate on top of the cloth. The second type was with a perforated plastic material. This cloth was relatively successful with only a few weeds showing up at the edges of the cloth where I didn’t do a good enough job of stretching it out all the way to the edge of the area covered. There was a problem, however. Apparently the perforations were so small that little moisture actually went through the cloth and into the ground. When I used it on an area where there was a slope, rain water ran to the low side and in some of our southern thunder storms where a huge amount of rain hit the ground in a short length of time, some of the mulch (ground wood mulch) floated away. The third type of weed cloth I used for the first time this year, so only short term effectiveness can be judged. This cloth is not a plastic sheet and is not woven, but more of what I would call “air laid.” I use this term because there are definitely long fibers in it, but they are in the fabric randomly, so it is not formed like paper were fibers are more aligned. There use to be some larger envelopes which used plastic fibers made through air-laid technology that looked something like this but were non-porous – and extremely tough. You could cut that material with a scissors or a knife, but you could not tear it. This weed cloth is also a bit thicker than the other two types. Anyway, so far this has worked very well for keeping weeds down and allows water to pass though it quite easily. Sorry, I don’t have brand names or manufacturer names to offer.
I have used pine straw in the past, but it does not hold up well for me in walkway applications. It breaks down into short pieces and compacts. By the second year, there is definitely a build-up of fine material on the surface of the cloth where roots can take hold. I imagine if you use enough pine straw on the walkway and add more every year as the older straw decomposes, it will build up a tight layer that would not support seed growth.
Larry
