[bgamble3]

Rocks are the worse for beds. Too much heat from sun will kill plants unless cactus. Weeds will come thru worse. Just MHO.

[jebartle]

IMHO Don't do rocks, you will be picking weeds 4ever, no matter how much prep work.

[cj1040]

Landscape package for new build was a difficult experience. Coming from NY State we had no idea of plant names that do well here or potential growth. The representatives for TCL should have a booklet that shows photos of each plant, its name and mature size and other features such as flowers, berries etc so that an informed decision can be made. She was flipping through computer images about 2 x 2 inches and I could not begin to get a good idea of what they looked like or read about them. We had to stop the meeting, visit the nursery the next day to get ideas, then meet again to be told there was NOT room for a stone edging as our house had to line up with others and we could not go past a certain line for this BUT could get permission and do it after market....Then several plants I had wanted that I saw at the nursery were not available to this company. Then she was pressed for time as she had another appointment so she ended up throwing in some plants that i was not familiar with - I found out later that these can grow up to 5 ft tall and wide and need pruning and I do NOT want them. My contract is signed and basically I was not happy with this whole experience. I have had to tear out original landscape at a house we built up North as we trusted the designer to meet our criteria with the plants she chose and they were awful- about 30 feet of scraggly thorny bushes that needed pruning and rarely flowered as she had described. We bought our own little pine trees, carefully measured, planted them and they form a wonderful privacy row in front of the property we sold last year - now they are about 20 feet tall. If you do it right and know the mature size of what you are getting you wont have to tear out mistakes and start all over and this is what we were TRYING to do this time around.....any advice or comments on how to get approval for the landscape curbing or recommendations of who to hire for this?

[JohnN]

Originally Posted by 2newyorkers

I have done this. My big suggestion is do not use white rock like I did. It gets dirty very easily. Make sure you put matting underneath and the matting overlaps. I put colorful pots with flowers on top so I am not making holes in the matting. I do use roundup and Preen.

Our villa has brown seminole in the landscaped beds and white beach rock near the street. It looks pretty good. Eight years later, I think the white rock looks better because yard debris shows up more on the darker rock. It all sinks a bit so I just resurface by tossing a bit more rock every few years. I use Roundup sparingly. Vinegar is also good for killing weeds.