I have never seen so much use of stone mulch anywhere I have visited except in the arid west. In Las Vegas I visited a friend who had beautiful cacti and succulents in gorgeous white stone mulch. Absolutely striking! They had severe water restrictions so no grass plus the plants needed a rock or sand mulch to avoid rotting problems. Here in Florida pine straw or bark mulch work well. They keep the soil cool and suppress weed growth and replenish soil nutrients as they decompose. The bacteria and fungi organisms proliferate and the plants and trees thrive. It always amazes me that people hermetically seal their poor soil with landscape fabric and then add tons of rocks on top. No nutrients for their plants and they slowly use up all the nutrients that the poor soil has left and then they slowly starve until somebody pours chemical fertilizers all over them and that is not healthy. I have been adding bark mulch for ten years and the soil is very fertile. Very few weeds are evident as I replenish the large pine nuggets seasonally. (ACE loads them in my SUV) I also plant native ground covers such as swamp twinflower, frogfruit, dwarf Walter’s Viburnum, dwarf “Psycho”coffee, etc, etc,, so there is little room for the weeds to grow. I rarely spray as the weeds are minimal plus I have many insects and birds I don’t want to harm. I don’t need much fertilizer anymore as the soil food web of my yard is very active. Bacteria and fungi feed the forests of the world and they can provide a great food source for our yards. There is nothing wrong with bees, butterflies, bats, snakes, possums, etc.. I am a devout gardener so my views may not be helpful to the normal homeowner, but if you want to help the environment and all the native flora and fauna of this beautiful state of Florida skip the Southwest and Mexican rock mulching and use pine straw or bark mulch.
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