Home Improvement → Mulch / rock beds

I go though a vicious cycle with landscaping. I hate lawn care and lawn work. I do not enjoy it at all.
It seems like every few years, I will have to rip out my "beds" because they have become overgrown with weeds. I've tried mulch, and to a lesser extent rock. I like rock better.

With both types, I do the arduous "scraping away" of the old material. I put down a heavy landscape fabric. Then it seems like the weeds start growing in about 2 weeks. I'm not into poisons or herbicides.
What I am looking for is a type of much of rock that naturally "resists" weed growth. I'm tired of these stupid "barriers". They just don't work. Eventually enough crud enters the bed to sustain weed life.
Any recommendations?

So, you think the weeds are growing in the rocks or in the soil?

I've never understood why if you want it to grow, it won't, but if you don't want it to grow, it will. I've had both rock and mulch, and the trouble I had with rocks is that they somehow bit by bit migrated to the lawn, where the mower blade hit them. I've heard that some people averse to herbicides have had success with a landscape flame thrower.

use a can of outdoor latex fence paint below your rock bed. no weeds grow in paint contaminated soil. homedepot has wrongly mixed colors at half price usually.

The weeds are growing on the topside of the barrier. I guess enough debris gets deposited in the beds to make it suitable for weed growth.

Preen and Green works well - some weeding will need to be done. It is juts a fact of life that weeds will grow. Not even the weed fabric does not work as you have seen.

I don't like doing landscaping as well but you really don't have a choice. Weed as needed and the beds won't get overrun.

I use Preen also in my mulched areas with no fabric and though it does not kill weeds it prevents them from germinating so I only have to spray a few that have grown thru the season. Works very well.

Assign weeding task to the wife and than sit back and drink a beer while she weeds the flower beds.

That's exactly what happens to my rock beds. I can gently pick up the rocks and see the weeds growing in a bit of decomposed leaf and whatever else accumulates between the rocks. Nothing grows through the landscape fabric unless there's a hole, however.

My solution the last few years is a 2x4 frame with hardware cloth stretched across it. I put the frame on sawhorses, put the rock in a wheelbarrow, shovel some into the frame, shake and sift a bit, then wash the rock with a hose. I shopvac the landscape fabric and put the rock back where it came from.

For cheap solutions, you've got a choice of using your back or chemicals. If you want to spend more you have somebody else do it or apply some sort of pavement.

Have you considered goats?

Don't install a flower bed or garden. No bed, no maintenance. Use some shrubs or fencing for your landscaping decor, instead.

I have a number of really large steep hills covered generously in crushed rock, and I opted not to use the underlayment barriers as it would have forced me to take out a mortgage to afford all that I needed. The rocks were put in by an excavator and layered up from the base to the top of the hills.

I simply use extended time round-up, which lasts about 4 months, and problem is solved. It only takes me maybe 20 minutes every other week in the spring through summer months... not a big deal. The rock has the added advantages for me of mitigating erosion effects and not needing additional maintenance (whacking, mowing, mulching, etc.) It's been a wise choice.

I've actually succeeded in getting my wife to do it.

It was quite amazing how quickly it was done.

I didn't even have the time to go prepare faking to do something in the basement that she called me back upstairs to empty the wheel barrow in garbage bags and dispose of the weeds.

Now she wants me to till the flower beds. Damnit.

I sprinkle preen every February since its been out. Now I don't sprinkle as much because the weeds don't appear anymore.
I live in a condo and working on a project to expand my back concrete patio area and maybe stain,texture,or tile it. Leave small areas for palm,ornamental trees,and bushes between the edge and stone wall/fence. More container plants Less area to fuss with. Soon I will be away more and need low maintenance outside.

There is Preen mulch at the garden centers.

Strange how they all have the same MO. Mine did the same thing. Dispose of the weeds and......go to Home Depot to pick up Cypress Mulch that was on sale. Never did get the beer until much later.

It's their arm muscles, strong for certain things, weak for others.

They are used to "grabbing what they want" motion, but not "taking out the garbage" or "lifting things".