Quote:
Originally Posted by My Daily Run
I need some advice on my landscape. I had pine straw when I bought my home 8 years ago and continued to have it applied for a few years. Now I have had mulch/wood chips for many years but I have noticed that more and more landscapes have rocks...what do you have and or what is your experience with some of these products. I have a low landscape wall and when I have my home power washed I also have the wall done as mold grows on it. Wondering if the rocks get moldy too.
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First of all realize that people in general will declare what they have chosen is the right choice-human nature.
So I declare that we have pine straw.
People who have rocks, probably gravel or river pebbles is a truer description, have or should have the rocks laid down on landscape fabric. Sooner or later you will have weeds and/or grass push through. You then need to pull each weed by hand a tedious job. Also, if you choose to have different areas with different rock types, you need to put them back into place if, they are disturbed-again by hand.
Either pine straw or wood chips do decompose so you need to add more on a regular basis. We have a 5000 sq foot lawn. I find that I use about 4-5 bales of pine straw a year for replacements. Cost is just about 4.00 a bale so $20.00 per year. As we do not have landscaped fabric underneath, weeding is fairly easy using long handled tools such as a hoe.
I have used products such as Preen. It does work but does not prevent all weeds so you still need to do some weeding. Aside-products such as Preen kill weed seeds. Your grass, St Augustine or Empire Zoyzia spreads by runners so Preen will not control it spreading into your planting beds.