Using river rock for landscaping

[Sean Troy]

Can anyone think of a down side of using river rock (1" +) for landscaping around the house? We use bark right now and I'm tired of the wind blowing it out in the yard and having to replace it every couple of years. Thanks, Sean

[David Weaver]

The only thing that I can think of is that if you have tree dirt, it will settle between the rocks and weeds will grow.

That, and on a bright sunny day, the rock will be hot.

The upside is that it's more permanent and the bugs will like it a lot less than they like mulch. I've got a brick house and still don't like having mulch against the house, it's like a welcome mat for ants and termites.

(we don't use river rock now, we use red stone in a fairly coarse size, and are happy that we've switched. We get a little bit of weeds after 6 years now because of settled tree dirt that's in the stones and above the weed matting below the stone, but it's easy enough to roundup whatever we get in weeds in about a half hour's time each year).

[David Helm]

Weed control will be very difficult

[Jay Jolliffe]

If you put down the black landscape cloth under that lets water through it I think it would be fine...That will keep the weeds from coming up through but not the ones that may fall from trees or get blown in from the wind....

[Rick Potter]

I have 3/4-1" gravel (pebbles, not crushed) around a lot of areas of my house. It is part of the drainage, using swales underneath with landscape cloth under the gravel. It is very low maintenance and has had few weeds. My son drives a gravel truck, and went to AZ to get me a truck and trailer load of special river gravel with a tan tint, which looks nicer than the usual grey.

One problem with it is that my new Cocker Spaniel likes to pick them up and make little piles :confused: .

Don't know how it would be in snow country.

Rick P

[Bruce Page]

River rock is common here in the southwest, I have a few tons of it. If you use a good quality cloth underlay (don't use plastic) you should be good to go for many years. Eventually, as dirt gets blown in you will get some weeds but it is not a big deal if you stay on top of it.

[Ted Calver]

The downside for the smaller sizes is that they are good throwing material for the neighborhood kids, yup had a lot of trouble with that, and they get easily kicked or blown by the leaf blower onto the lawn where they become mower missiles. I prefer the larger sizes like 4"-8" or larger which are more stable and not so easy to throw. The smaller sizes really need an edging of some sort for containment, while the larger sizes really dont need an edge barrier. Good quality landscape fabric under any type, not just heavy plastic. The larger sizes are easier to clean with the hose when they get silted in over time. Just my 2 cents.

[Matt Meiser]

We are getting it put in this week. We currently have white rock, tire mulch, real mulch, and lava rock courted of the previous owners. The white rock is in the best shape as far as weeds and staying in place. It's all going. Tire mulch is just as bad as real but what gets in the lawn doesn't ever break down.

Landscape designer says just blow it out good fall and spring and the sprinkle Preen in the spring. They are installing good fabric first.

[Mark Bolton]

I just did some work for a customer who took out all their mulch years ago and fabric'd and put in #57 river gravel as mulch. It all looked perfect after being their for years. I dont care for the look personally just because I like a more natural landscape and the rock, to me, looks cold/sterile/featureless, but in the world of low maintenance it looked great to me.

We actually had to do some work beneath some of the beds and it was really easy to just remove the rock to a tarp, slice open the landscape fabric, do our work, then lay the fabric back with a patch piece over the splice, and lay the rock back in. When you were done you didnt even know we were there. The same would be true for mulch I suppose.

I think the work is in the prep, and the recurring maintenance, and if you like the look of rock. I like mulch and I dont mind re-mulching each year but that may change. :-)

[Don Morris]

I investgated putting some stones down on an area of our cul-du-sac where large garbage trucks were driving over the edge and creating ruts in the grass. That caused me (I'm usually the one who maintains it, the City is too slow). I was thinking of putting 1" -3" stones in that area which could be attractive but not need maintenance if the trucks drove over them. The local stone dealer said just watch out for putting down missle size stones (around 1" was his concern). if a truck's tread picks it up, it can throw them a long way and pack a real whollop. He recommended gravel size (smaller than 1") if there is any chance a truck might be driving over it. I never thought of that.

[Dave Richards]

We have river rock over landscape cloth around our house and the garden shed. Weeds growing up from underneath aren't a problem but over time they do dirt that blows in along with leaves off the trees and seeds from weeds and trees. Those seeds will sprout but if you catch them early enough they won't get much in the way of roots and you can pull them out easily. I'd like to remove all of our river rock, sift it to clean it, replace the landscape cloth and then the rock and start over.

Make sure you put in some sort of edging to keep the rocks contained or you'll be pitching rocks around the neighborhood when you mow.

[glenn bradley]

Weed control will be very difficult

Out here we have to "think desert" to some extent. It is common to lay down a heavy rubberized membrane prior to laying in rock. This solves you weed problem and promotes water run-off in the direction you planned. The same method is used at the university where I work and 20,000 students walk through those areas year after year without issue. If you are in a windy area and have loose or sandy soil, you will have to 'sweep' the rock areas with a yard blower to avoid the weeds David mentions. Where I live, anything that is going to blow around has already blown away to aside from the occasional piece of junk mail or candy wrapper, things stay pretty clear.

[Justin Koenen]

We have rock (1-1/2) and use Preen twice a growing season --no weeds.

[Larry Frank]

Good fabric, stone and Preen. If you still get weeds, Roundup extended will keep them away. I love the look of natural mulch but getting older and replacing it each year is getting at bit tiring.

[Mel Fulks]

We might all be thinking of different ideas of what type of landscaping. We like gardening but I don't like modern foundation plantings ,so I removed all that were here. Can't understand why people let plants block windows. I see them as just hiding sloppy cables and wires....and thieves. I'm considering a metal or pressure
treated border all the way around house two or three feet wide filled with gravel same color as brick base of house.

[Sean Troy]

Thanks all for the replies. This would be up against the house. I'm tired of the replacing, bugs and moister from the bark mulch. It's also a pain when we trim to get all the little leaves out. With rock, I can at least use a blower to clean up. I don't see much dirt getting blown in the rocks. Grass surrounds it and it stays somewhat moist around here. Thanks, Sean

[John Goodin]

I have some and gonna add a bit more to help with run off. Done right it can be very attractive. The only draw back is a short term one . . . getting it put into place is a real workout.

[Steve Peterson]

I have some and gonna add a bit more to help with run off. Done right it can be very attractive. The only draw back is a short term one . . . getting it put into place is a real workout.

I agree with that. I had to wheelbarrow 5 yards of pea gravel from the driveway to the back yard over a few up and down hills. It took several evenings and was a lot of work. Garden mulch came next and it seemed like it only took about an hour over the same terrain.

Steve

[Mike Lassiter]

If you put down the black landscape cloth under that lets water through it I think it would be fine...That will keep the weeds from coming up through but not the ones that may fall from trees or get blown in from the wind....

That doesn't work. I went to a lot of trouble doing that myself where our 12x32 shop sits. Had to do about a 2 foot retaining wall to level the ground, laid out landscape fabric then covered with rock to avoid having weeds and grass growing around the building. Slowly it has done exactly that. While not fully surrounding the building yet, we did this in 08 and I would guess about 75% covered by grass. The money and time to lay the landscape fabric before putting down the gravel was simply a waste. Dirt was dug from behind my house where I build another building myself and had been piled for 5 years before moving it. It had some grass growing on it, but most of that was the first to be moved and placed at the bottom of the fill area, so I know the grass didn't come from that and even then covered with landscape fabric and several inches of gravel on top of that. Have resorted to spraying around the building which is a utility building that was prebuilt and delivered and sits on concrete blocks just off the ground as low as I could get it.

[Mel Fulks]

Mike, I agree it doesn't work as well as we'd like. What happens is over time dust ,pollen, bird droppings ,seeds ;all work
together and there will be some weeds growing in some good compost.

[David Weaver]

I've had good luck with landscape fabric, even the cheap stuff. But last time I redid one of my retaining walls, the borg had good landscape fabric for about 5x the cost of the cheap stuff, and I got it. My fabric under my stones has been in place for about 7 years now? I get weeds here or there like I said, but nothing like what comes through mulch spread on dirt, and it's a matter of 10 minutes every month or two to roundup anything that has come up - even though I'm using one of those dumpy spray bottles they sell roundup in. It'd be less with a tank sprayer, but my tank sprayers are on standby with other stuff (oil spray in one and a broadleaf mixture in another).

Putting stone down for us (instead of mulch) might be the single best thing we've done outside of the house.

[Charlie Velasquez]

If you use a good quality cloth underlay (don't use plastic) you should be good to go for many years. Bruce, what is the reason not to use plastic? When I bought our house it had had some water penetration along one corner of our basement. I added dirt all the way around the house to increase slope, then two layers of 8mil plastic (I think it may have been reinforced, but I can't remember-all I remember saying to the lumber yard guy was I wanted the best-thickest stuff you got) extending about 6 feet from foundation. Then river rock about 4" depth. That was 1989. No more water problems. No to little weeds after 25 years. Foliage via large planters/pots and such. Last year I had to dig down for a cable repair. Plastic looks almost as good as when I laid it. No sunlight deterioration as I don't think the sunlight ever gets to it.

[Sean Troy]

Looks like I'll need 8 tons for the job I want to do. Cost is 300.00 delivered. How does that price sound?

[Gordon Eyre]

I have several tons or 3" river rock (from Arizona) and like it a lot. I did put down a weed barrier first and it does a good job of controlling them. What weeds I do get I simply spray a couple of times a year to kill them off.

[Jim Rimmer]

Thanks all for the replies. This would be up against the house. I'm tired of the replacing, bugs and moister from the bark mulch. It's also a pain when we trim to get all the little leaves out. With rock, I can at least use a blower to clean up. I don't see much dirt getting blown in the rocks. Grass surrounds it and it stays somewhat moist around here. Thanks, Sean

I used river rock about in a strip about a foot wide against my house but the smallest rocks are 2 or 3". No problems with the leaf blower moving them around. I guess kids could throw them but so far they haven't. Best thing I did for my landscape after I cut down all the hedges.