Pine straw vs. wood chips vs. landscape rocks
 

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.

I switched from pine straw to stone four years ago. I prefer it in many ways, especially that stone doesn’t need to be reapplied. Mold is not an issue with stone. I remember reading/hearing that stone will “burn” your plants and tree trunks, which is nonsense.

Very happy with rocks. No mold.

We have rock and certainly like the look. Weeds and grass however are sometimes a challenge to remove with stone. We do pull our stone away from the trunk of our bushes as we were told by the landscaping company that the heat from the rock was not good touching the bush. The other point is that mold does form on the rocks in areas where there is no sun. Still a much better option in my estimation than something that needs to be added to on a regular basis.

My opinion
 

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.

Rocks give a Southwest USA feel to a landscape. They benefit cacti and agave and other plants needing a dry surface around them. Conformity and a perceived ease of care continue to favor the use of rock as a mulch in The Villages. The University of Florida recommends an organic mulch such as pine straw or pine bark as it keeps the soil cool and breaks down to help feed the plants. Our soil here is overall, pretty poor and compacted and when you plant in it and cover it with landscape cloth and rocks you are sealing it in a tomb of poor soil that will never improve. I have looked elsewhere around housing developments far from here and the use of rocks as mulch is much less than here. This post gives you an indication of why The Villages is different, the OP is noticing a lot of rocks around and is wondering if he should do the same. Rocks appear to be low maintenance in the beginning but as time goes by dust and dirt settle in the rocks and then weeds grow in the rocks. Plants do not like growing in rocks, they prefer organic mulches, people like to conform and have no work so they choose rocks, but it ends up needing frequent applications of weed killers. Some of the best weed killers may not be available in the future so an organic mulch may be a good alternative. Who ever used rocks where they came from? Rocks are for Mexico and Southwest USA not Florida. My opinion only, obviously.

During the landscaping of our new TV home 5 years ago, we decided to go with 'rocks'. Wanted reddish color, and thought lava rocks might be good. Discussing with the co that installed our stacked walls, they told us NO to lava rocks. After a few seasons they will develop black mildew in the small holes and crevices. So we decided on nice reddish stones our front (much more $$$, but,) - after 5 years...perfect. I did the back of the house myself and decided to go with the lava rocks since it's a relatively narrow area all around. Spread bags of the rock and looked great for a couple years - then the black spots. I'm OK with it since it's in the rear and not too noticeable...but...heads up....

I like the chipped bark in our garden bed out front. Whoever built the bed put down landscape fabric, then positioned the in-ground and potted plants, and spread the bark around the whole thing. I do plan on adding a couple of rocks, but by that I mean the larger size rocks. Gneiss and schist, perhaps 5 or 6 total spread out between the flower bed in the middle of the front lawn and between the bushes up against the house. These are the types of stones that make up most of the stone walls of New England, and I want to bring a natural, subtle touch of home to my new home.

We use leaves, which are in abundance at end of many curbs.

I'm a cypress mulch person. It doesnt fly around like bark chips . gives a natural look. I've never liked the red pine straw look, but of course that's just opinion, which is what you asked for.

Our last house had pine straw until we got so tired of walking it into the house. It was always spilling/blowing onto the sidewalk from the front landscaping. A hard rain bounced it out also. We had it all changed to stones and never looked back. In six years we never had any mold or plant damage. If you use plants recommended for our area's summer heat, you won't have a problem. We did leave a couple of inches bare around the base of the plants.

Not sure if mold is a problem, but I think that weeds growing between the stones after 3-4 years can be.

I asked your questions to a landscaper a few years ago and was told that they like installing stone. Why? They get paid to install it, then paid again to remove it a few years later. Just what I was told.

I like to take the master gardeners advice.

All About Mulch - Gardening Solutions - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

We just had 4 cubic yards of White Marble Rock put down with protective mat to prevent weeds from coming through. The cost including contractor putting it down was 1150.00. He did a superb price. If you want his number reply back and I will give it to you.

We converted to stone four years ago. I would never consider having it removed. As for any weed growth, a quick spray of weed killer takes care of it.

We recently purchased a CYV, it had wood chips and lava rock and way too many shrubs. We removed most of the shrubs removed the horrible looking wood chips and lava rock that had been here for some years. We replaced with river rock and it looks very nice and has a much cleaner look.