Rocks or mulch?

[CrappieAttitude]

Ok yard people with the sudden change of nice weather, I once again am finding myself with a "honey do" list. We are looking at putting landscaping beds around the perimeter of our house. My question to all of you is what are the pros and cons comparing rocks-vs- cedar mulch?

We will be putting primarily schrubs and hosta type plants. Should I go with rock, or would ceder mulch be easier.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

CA

[Meat-Run]

CA,

Either way I look at it your not going fishing with me this weekend I see

mr

[katoguy]

I did river rock about 3-4 years ago. I would recommend against it. Hot against the house (reflects and radiates heat). Also, it is more difficult to move for plants. It is not as fertile and doesn't hold water.

If I had to do it again, I would do all mulch. Mulch sun-fades and blows around a little. You will need to add some to the top every once in a while because of this (also the bottom stuff decomposes).

[LwnmwnMan2]

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Ok yard people with the sudden change of nice weather, I once again am finding myself with a "honey do" list. We are looking at putting landscaping beds around the perimeter of our house. My question to all of you is what are the pros and cons comparing rocks-vs- cedar mulch?

We will be putting primarily schrubs and hosta type plants. Should I go with rock, or would ceder mulch be easier.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

CA

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If you look at the commercial buildings that are being built anymore, they're all using mulch.

A couple of reasons are what katoguy said. You can easily replace the mulch once it fades. Rock doesn't lose its color however.

If you want to change the look of your house, the easiest way is to change the color of your landscape. With mulch, putting 1" of a different color will dramatically change the look of your whole property. With rock, you can't do this, soon you'll have 3' of rock around your house.

Another thing, mulch is 300% easier to deal with. You can load a whole scoop shovel at a time into a wheel barrow. Try that with rock.

This week I've already spready 25 yards of mulch by hand (wheelbarrow) and have another property and 1/2 left. Imagine doing that solo with rock??

Mulch also has nutrients that go back into the soil as it decomposes. My dad and I have this discussion quite often. He thinks that mulch is a fad, that people will go back to rock.

However, if you don't mind topdressing your mulch every year, or at least every other, then go with mulch. If you want to put something in, and never deal with it again, never change color, etc., go with rock.

[Sergeant Slabber]

I had wood chips around the perimeter of my house for the past 15 years and wish I would have never done that.I spent most of last summer pulling it all out and replacing with river rock. I would never go back to mulch again. The mulch was very dirty. Once it starts to decompose it basically turns to dirt which is a great place for weeds to grow. I had weeds all over the place. It didn't matter that I had a weed barrier underneath because the weeds were growing right in the mulch. Animals also love to dig in the mulch. Squirrels,rabbits,chipmunks to name a few. They make a huge mess out of it. I think the rock just looks much nicer overall. Chips are nice at first, but then they do sun fade and decompose. I don't have to worry about the animals, weeds or adding more rock every other year. I don't notice any more heat coming from the rock than the mulch. We also have hastas planted in there and they're doing great. Hope that helps!

[CrappieAttitude]

Do you put any underlayment down before the mulch like you do with rock, or do you just put the mulch down on the existing soil?

[Sergeant Slabber]

Yes, I would put down plastic or some sort of weed barrier. You will probably still get weeds though if you go with the mulch.

[Powerstroke]

Personally I prefer mulch. My friend and I have this discussion every year. He's kind of a fanatic about his rock beds to the point that they pull them out and "wash" the rocks every couple years. Yet he contends that spreading more mulch every year or two is too puch work.

If you buy a brightly colored mulch or one that is dyed to a certain color than of course it will sun fade. Natural mulches (excluding cedar nuggets) tend to change color less. Yes they can decompose but if you keep a nice deep layer then you shouldn't notice the compost underneith.

You will still get weeds in rock beds. There is enough dust and dirt in the air and decomposing leaves and seeds to create a seed bed. If you create a bed of any material you should figure to have to use a preemergent like Preen or treat or pull the weeds when they come up.

I like the mulch for all the reasons lwnmwnman said. Its easy to use, easy to move and easy to fix. Also, I don't have to worry about rocks getting in the yard and damaging my mower or shooting across the yard hitting the house, people or cars.

[doser]

Most landscapers do not recommend putting landscape fabric under mulch.

[LwnmwnMan2]

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Most landscapers do not recommend putting landscape fabric under mulch.

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True, just use a product that's similar to Preen, Treflan, Snapshot, or other that you can find, all granular, and spread that over your mulch.

This is a pre-emergent, works similar to a crabgrass preventer, and you'll be weed free.

If not, it's not that hard to have a gallon of roundup sitting around and when you walk around your property, to zap the weeds.

I forgot to mention about the fact that Powerstroke mentioned.

If you have kids around, it's a severe safety issue. They have a tendency to play about anywhere, and rocks are easy to throw, mulch is not.

Rocks that end up in the grass are sometimes heavier, and set down in the grass a little more, to the point you may not see them, until you mow over them. Mulch isn't going to fly through the window, or worse yet, someone's head.

In the 18 years that I've been mowing, I've broken 3 windows and hit a coworker in the head with a rock thrown out of the non-discharge side of the mower. Dropped him immediately.

Anyways, yes, there's some maintenance to mulch, but I can show you the rock around the deck that I put in 8 years ago, and you can't hardly see it through the dump that's grown up in the rock.

What's that saying??? The plumbers' pipes always leak????

[eurolarva]

We had rock beds at our last house that were infested with weeds. I removed the rocks and the landscaping fabric only to find another layer of rock and fabric. Obviously the weeds became an issue to the previous owner. Once all the rock was removed we planted all of our flowers in the 3 dollar a yard mulch from the city and topped it off with wood chips. Had to redo the chips every year but the garden was a lot healthier then with the rocks and weeds were not as big of a problem.

[LwnmwnMan2]

While I was out doing some cleanups today, I came across one more idea that I figured I'd throw out....

The problem with rocks, is that leaves and the such want to get caught up in them, and unless you have a good backpack blower, you'll have a hard time getting the real real clean.

If you've got shreaded mulch, you can use a handheld blower and 90% or more of the leaves in the fall will sort of "skim across" the top of the mulch, so you can clean out the flower / garden beds easier.

[CrappieAttitude]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I really appreciate the info.

It sounds like mulch is a lot easier on the back as well as the wallet.

CA

[Big Dave2]

I have rock all the way around my house. I would never do it again. In fact I want to dig out the rocks this year and re-landscape around my house with colored mulch. I like the red stuff.

[vern]

I have both but I prefer the mulch. Weeds have no problem growing through the rocks & they're a pain to pull out. Also, rocks get hot which isn't good for the plants. Mulch holds moisture better & blocks the weeds just as well.

[Shack]

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Rock doesn't lose its color however.

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Use hard water with alot of iron in it in your sprinkler system and see what happens to the color of the rock. I own a small landscape supply/delivery company. I have been hauling mulch, rock and black dirt for about 5 years now. I love mulch for many reasons. First is mark up, there is a ton of it. Second is, the same people call you back every year because they have to retop their mulch. I have a combo of both. I on the other hand prefer rock. For the cheaper price per cubic yard and low malignance for life, it looks good. Go with river rock. It is void of subject of fads and changes like other landscape rock has (lava rock from the eighties). I am sure some people love it, but I have never had anyone call for it and I would hate to price out a large job with the stuff. Again, I love mulch. Nothing beats the look it gives the first month or two of summer. If you go with canyon red, it starts to fade by end of July. By far the dark chocolate stays it color the longest. This is mostly what I have people calling for. Also in mid July, rake it around and it will bring some color back for ya.

[Shack]

Oh! I forgot,

Landscape fabric under mulch! This all depends on how thick you spread mulch. 4" and over you are not going to get much weed. I spread a little shrub fertilizer with weed preventer in spring on my mulch. This does help immensely. Over 4", fabric is just a waste of money and time. Come to think of it, I have never even put landscape fabric under my thin layered mulch either. I just use weed preventer. Good luck!

[CrappieAttitude]

Thanks for the responses thus far guys. I appreciate the feedback. Another question...I have seen landscape yards have bags of mulch as well as piles. I understand that the bags are for convienience, but is there something I should be looking at when buying the mulch? Are the bags just for those people who dont want to haul loose mulch, or does the price difference corrolate with a beter product?

CA

[Shack]

Price. One little tip I will give you is buy in bulk. If you have extra, just throw it on top. Do not keep it in a pile off to the side. It starts to biodegrade fast. Like a compost pile.

[fishinphilth]

I just got rid of a lot of red mulch. Going to put down rock as for my dogs seem to think that it is fun to dig in the mulch.

[CrappieAttitude]

Another thing, Do you guys just dump it in a pile in your yard? I know that with rocks, some guys have them dumped in the driveway so it is easier to scoop up. I suppose once you get to the bottem, what little dirt you cant rake up is helpful anyways. I may have just answered my own question.

CA

[McGurk]

I remember hearing that there are some destructive bugs coming up from down south in the bulk mulch and maybe even in the bagged, but I could be wrong. Anyone have any more details on this? It would be a shame to do all this work and have the rest of your yard/trees/bushes suffer.

[Shack]

Cypress mulch is trucked in. I know this, because if there is a hurricane the price goes up dramatically. Also you can go threw a big shortage. I figure what mulch or product turned into mulch that is determined to be truck in, is subject to availability of the original product. This would apply to "Red Wood" mulch, "Cypress" mulch, and even other hard woods. All of your colored mulch primarily is local pine products. It does not have hard wood in it. Most of the price is in the dying process. When bringing in a product, their will all ways be a chance of infestation of something or other. I do know the companies go to great lengths to control this from happening.

P.S.

Crappiattitude,

Yes, they can dump it right on your drive way and you can use a lawn tractor and trailer combo to move were you like. This is good for people who do not have trailer to pull to a place or veh. that will pull trailer. They also will drop a cargo box (small semi trailer/ roll off box) you can drive a bob cat into and when you are done you can lock it up.

[Duffman]

From a guy who has hand shoveled 100's of tons of rock, get it dumped on your driveway, it's much easier to deal with. Same can be said with anything if you need to hand shovel it into a wheelbarrel, dirt-gravel-mulch.