landscaping with stones question

[simpsongal]

I recall researching borders and This Old House said plastic almost always comes out of the ground. Landscape ties (i.e., wood) are a decent, inexpensive choice. If you want a less visible border, probably go with metal.

You're giving me ideas now, the area near our AC unit always gets unruly. Rock would really make it look tidy.

[ruthie7532]

We had this type of stuff in metal around all our flower beds in our last house. 


 

In 7 years it never came out of the ground. To make it look prettier, we got river rocks and laid them in front of the edging, like this:



In our current house, we had some massive landscaping done to help with erosion, and our landscaper put in a bunch of large gravel under our deck. He surrounded it with a rim of rock edging that kind of looks like this:



It's prettier than I thought it would be, and really low maintenance! 

[dr.girlfriend]

I was also thinking that I'd want to edge it with paving stones or something.

[raangoli]

I like the idea of the paving stones. And agree that the larger stones are the way to go as opposed to smaller gravel.

[InBetweenDays]

We did something similar under a portion of our deck. We edged it with brick pavers because we had some on hand. They've been in for about 6 years with no issues. And we too went with the slightly bigger rock, although they do somehow still end up in the lawn (I blame the kids and dogs).

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[treedimensional]

It might interest you to know that termites love stone / gravel as mulch.

[AAM2012]

Mar 24, 2015 19:05:39 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

It might interest you to know that termites love stone / gravel as mulch.

I've never heard of this. In fact our termite person encouraged us to get rid of grass, mulch and vegetation away from the house and use the smaller rocks.

[treedimensional]

Mar 24, 2015 21:31:03 GMT -5 AAM2012 said:

Mar 24, 2015 19:05:39 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

It might interest you to know that termites love stone / gravel as mulch.

I've never heard of this. In fact our termite person encouraged us to get rid of grass, mulch and vegetation away from the house and use the smaller rocks.

"In the field, termites were detected with equal frequency beneath mulches of eucalyptus, hardwood, pine bark and pea gravel and bare, uncovered soil. Sustained activity over time was significantly higher beneath gravel mulch." - Dept of Entomology, Iowa State University

"...pea gravel and river rock used as mulch near buildings are just as likely to support termites as wood-based mulches." - Penn State extension

"...long-term termite activity was significantly higher beneath gravel mulch compared to wood-based mulch and uncovered soil." - U of MD

"Termites have been shown to feed more actively beneath inorganic gravel mulches ." - U of MD

[lavender444]

If you have dogs that have access to that area, stay away from metal edging. Most stitches on a dogs paw comes from metal edging.

[AAM2012]

treedimensional good to know! I prefer mulch but for whatever reason everyone has the rocks here I think because it's easier to spray for weeds.


Most here have rock versus mulch and use concrete edging like this:

www.groundtechmn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/concreteedging3_resize-300x188.jpg

[TBM]

Mar 24, 2015 19:05:39 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

It might interest you to know that termites love stone / gravel as mulch.

Thank you.   It isn't helpful in my search for what to put by the foundation so the house doesn't get so dirty, but it answered a question that I had.  I just read something the other day that said to keep rocks/gravel away from the foundation, but it didn't say why.... and I was too lazy to look it up.

[TBM]

Mar 25, 2015 18:28:59 GMT -5 nursecramer said:

Landscape cloth + rocks is so much more work than mulch! You have to vigilantly weed rocks (because they WILL poke up through the cloth), keep away the leaves in the fall, make sure cut grass doesn't get thrown in the rocks, etc. because they will fill up with dirt even faster if you allow plant matter to break down in there. Within 5 years or so, you have to dig up the rocks and dirt, pull up the cloth, clean the rocks, put down new cloth..... ugh. I've had to do that at both of the last two places we've lived and it's a giant PITA.

Mulch does just as good of job (IME) at keeping the weeds at bay. You never have to clean it up-- it just naturally decomposes and you dump another layer on top every year or so. Plus, no worrying about errant pieces escaping.

This is true, but I think mulch is ugly.  I hate(hate, hate) the look of it for my own yard, but we really should use it.  I guess it would be less work for us than the weeds, rogue grass, etc. that we have going on, but we haven't been able to force ourselves to go there.

[InBetweenDays]

Mar 25, 2015 18:28:59 GMT -5 nursecramer said:

Landscape cloth + rocks is so much more work than mulch! You have to vigilantly weed rocks (because they WILL poke up through the cloth), keep away the leaves in the fall, make sure cut grass doesn't get thrown in the rocks, etc. because they will fill up with dirt even faster if you allow plant matter to break down in there. Within 5 years or so, you have to dig up the rocks and dirt, pull up the cloth, clean the rocks, put down new cloth..... ugh. I've had to do that at both of the last two places we've lived and it's a giant PITA.

Mulch does just as good of job (IME) at keeping the weeds at bay. You never have to clean it up-- it just naturally decomposes and you dump another layer on top every year or so. Plus, no worrying about errant pieces escaping.

I'm sure it depends on the surrounding area, but we haven't had that issue with the rocks under our deck. We get maybe 2-3 weeds per year and they come out VERY easily. They've been out there for 6+ years and we're nowhere near needing to pull things up and redo them. It actually doesn't look really any different then when we installed them. 

[TBM]

Mar 26, 2015 11:00:51 GMT -5 nursecramer said:

Mar 26, 2015 10:49:30 GMT -5 TBM said:

This is true, but I think mulch is ugly.  I hate(hate, hate) the look of it for my own yard, but we really should use it.  I guess it would be less work for us than the weeds, rogue grass, etc. that we have going on, but we haven't been able to force ourselves to go there.

That had never even crossed my mind. We do not quite have your refined sense of style. My house, yard, etc. has been such an eyesore, pretty much anything we do is an improvement. lol

I'm sure that it has more to do with it not being something that we saw at all growing up in Southern AZ, and in So Cal it was not uncommon, but not the norm either.  We tried it there, but it made such a mess on the front sidewalk that it was more of a hassle than a help.    My neighbors across the street have it and their front sidewalk is always a mess from the mulch.  I don't want to have to sweep constantly just to have it look neat, and then still dislike it.

Maybe most of my issues with it stem from the many places I have seen with red beds that look contrived and unnatural to me.  I don't like the texture either, but I could live with that if I liked the look.   I do like the look of the black in the right spaces, (unnatural in a totally different way-lol), but dyes and added junk are a no go.

[nomad100]

treedimensional is it the same for carpenter ants and stones? Our ares doesn't seem to have issues with termites but the carpenter ants are freaking everywhere.

[treedimensional]

Mar 26, 2015 20:35:17 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

treedimensional is it the same for carpenter ants and stones? Our ares doesn't seem to have issues with termites but the carpenter ants are freaking everywhere.

IDK. Google (scholarly journals) might know.