Landscape stone

[Billybob]

Thinking about using river jacks instead of mulch. What's your feelings on laying down landscape fabric first?

Is it a waste of money n time? Is it more to keep the stone in place opposed to weed control?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[ken-n-nancy]

I have areas of crushed rock along the front and back of our house and under the deck. My impression is that the landscape fabric should not be counted on for weed control, although I think it does help with that indirectly, but not in the way one might think.

The key thing to keep weeds out of the crushed rock is to keep the rock deep enough (about 4 inches or more) and with large enough rocks (big spaces between rocks) so that soil doesn't develop from blow-in of organic materials, etc., near the surface. Small crushed rocks (like pea gravel) will tend to have the gaps "filled in" from organic matter or wind-carried dirt, etc., and then get seeds germinating in there.

What I like the landscape fabric for is that it keeps the rock separate from the soil, so that the rocks don't work themselves into the soil at all -- if you want to de-weed a crushed rock bed in the future, the landscape fabric will help make that a lot easier. However, you shouldn't be counting on the landscape fabric as providing the weed control, but having a sufficient depth of crushed rock on top of the fabric to prevent the weeds.

Landscape fabric with only a shallow covering of rock will end up having weeds either push up through the fabric, or germinate on top of the fabric and then send roots down through the fabric. What you end up with in that case is a real problem, as you have weeds that have grown in/through the landscape fabric, making it more difficult to remove either of them!

[Billybob]

Thank you sir.......makes total sense

[ericgautier]

I installed landscape fabric & stone in an area on my front yard where our new walkway was put in. So far so good. I'll update you next year to see if I'm battling any weeds.

When I went to go buy it, HD had different ones and I picked the one that blocked the most sun.

Across from the walkway, I didn't install fabric since I ran out and wife said just use newspaper. I'm already seeing grass/weeds grow in that area.

See here - http://aroundtheyard.com/renovations/er ... cg#p283885

[g-man]

A random guy at menards saw me looking at the landscape fabric once and told me not to buy that. He said go to the roofing section and buy the roll waterproofing barrier. It made sense since it is cheaper and waterproof and will last longer than the fabric. I tried it in an area I covered with rocks. I added a bit of a slope so the water has a place to go. It worked pretty good.