You'll have to dig a trench a few inches away from the foundation, and lay the barrier as you would anywhere else, making sure you don't leave any stray roots on the wrong side.

There's always an easy way to put the cat back in the bag. For bamboo it's simple; Every spring, take a lawn mower or weed whacker to the soft new shoots that appear. You'll have about a 3 week window until it gets tall and hard. Afterwards, you shouldn't have much trouble for the rest of the year.

This post was edited by Sumatra on Sat, Oct 26, 13 at 21:53

Sumatra, thanks for posting your reply. I think I wasn't clear on the goal here, which is to prevent the runners from continuing along the old foundation wall from the right side to the left in the photograph. So bamboo doing what it does best, finagling its way around obstacles and getting into chinks in your armor, I think I need a way to attach the end of the plastic barrier sheet where it will meet the foundation (perpendicular) to keep it from finding a way past.

This area is actually in the back yard corners of my 2 neighbors, where they rarely go and pay very little attention. If I don't make the barrier impregnable, there will eventually be be a well-established wall of it constantly firing off runners into my yard, which is what happened before.

Thanks again!