We are still working on the patio spruce-up. Today, we are talking about Landscaping with Rock instead of Mulch. If you missed the first installment of the patio spruce-up, or the DIY Scrap wood rolling planter, make sure to check those out! Or if you want to check out my recent shade garden update – you can find that here. Basically, we are working on sprucing up the patio over the next month or so… on a serious budget! So, let’s chat about our decision for using rocks instead of mulch and what that entailed.
Replacing Mulch With Rock
Two years ago, we spruced up the patio with mulch. Actually, we spruced up all our flower beds with mulch. They all looked great and the patio was no exception. But, at over $600 in mulch to get all the areas looking nice, it was just too much. It would have been ok if that $600 lasted a few years, but really the mulch in our area needs to be done yearly. We have tons of trees on our property and on the property all around us. So, between the branches and leaves that constantly fall, we are out there with a leaf blower trying to keep the spaces cleared. Well, the leaf blower not only takes care of the leaves but it also moves the mulch around. So, about six months after we put in all that mulch – it went to looking pretty bad.
Some areas in our yard can look more ‘organic’ or less manicured. The patio area definitely pulls traditional and needs the mulch areas to look nice.
Luke and I finally came to the realization that we just couldn’t keep up with all the flower bed areas and we had to start making some changes. One of the changes we made was to replace all the mulch around the patio with river rocks and possibly all the flower beds with rocks instead of mulch.
My step-brother and I started landscaping with rocks instead of mulch last fall and it’s been working well for us. I wanted to wait a bit to share because I wanted to give my honest opinion on the mulch vs rock look. I felt like I really needed to see how the river rock looked over time before reporting back in on the mulch vs rock around our patio.
Using Rocks Instead of Mulch How-To
The first thing we did was to rip out all the old plants. The plants looked ok in the photo above but two of them were dead and only two had flowered (when they were all the same type of plant to begin with). So, we ripped those out and then started raking off the excess mulch.
Next, we put down weed barrier.
Every twelve inches or so, I would hammer in these landscaping pins to keep the weed barrier in place.
Then, I’d cut a hole in the weed barrier and dig my holes for the plants. This might seem like a lot of work but since I was replacing the mulch around the patio anyways, I wanted to do it right!
I placed my plants in the holes and tucked some dirt in around them. Then, we hauled in lots of river rock.
The landscape area around our patio is pretty large. I think it took about 20 bags of river rock. The total for this project came to around $175.
In hindsight, it would have been cheaper to grab river rock by the truckload instead of the bags. I was just eye-balling the bags and we used way more than I expected to use.
Here’s the after:
So, do we love it? Yes and no! I love the ease of maintaining it. We can use the leaf blower for just a few minutes and it looks great. The rocks stay in place and I don’t have to worry about them.
Overall, I don’t love it quite as much as fresh mulch. I think there’s something really homey about fresh mulch that you can’t quite get with the rocks. However, as soon as fresh mulch starts looking not so fresh then I definitely don’t love that either. I do think once my plants grow to be a bit bigger, it will feel homier.
Overall, we are definitely glad we chose to landscape with the rocks instead of the mulch. It has helped the patio stay cleaner and more put together and, in the long-run, it will be much cheaper. If you want to see more of our patio, then make sure to check out our home tour!
What do you think of the whole rock vs mulch situation? Would you ever consider using rocks instead of mulch or do you love the fresh mulch look?
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Julia@Cuckoo4Design says
April 18, 2016 at 9:42 amLooks really good, especially for a patio. We have some too and I like it a lot
Ashley Mayes says
April 18, 2016 at 2:39 pmAgree! We have been throwing the idea around to do it a bit in the front as well, but haven’t settled on anything. Maybe next year.
Tammey Keyes says
May 19, 2018 at 10:55 amIt is pretty and more natural. I planted a shade garden and have decided to put wet newspaper between plants, followed by rock peppered with (found at the dollar store) fake light pinkish “beach glass” I am planning to start today. Can’t wait! So glad I discovered your site!
Ashley Mayes says
May 21, 2018 at 9:48 amThanks Tammey! Glad you like it. Your landscaping plan sounds great!
Megan says
April 18, 2016 at 8:43 pmWe have both. We got the rocks for free and they all started out in our now gone cactus/rock garden. Once we got rid of that, we out the rocks in various flowerbeds. We still have a lot of mulch areas. I like both and think there’s a good way to mix both to achieve both looks. We bought some rocks for our garden paths by the truck load. And we always buy mulch by the truck load as we have a lot of areas. I do like what you did. It looks nice and will look great once the plants grow.
Ashley Mayes says
April 19, 2016 at 9:47 amI do like a mix of both! I definitely think that’s the way to go.
Kathy from CT says
April 20, 2016 at 7:25 amI think it looks lovely. Agree that once the plants grow a bit then it will look less cold. My husband is always saying “gotta buy more mulch cuz it looks weathered”. Now that he has a certain amount of money to use for yard maintenance, he is switching to rocks in some areas like you did. I don’t think we will switch over for all areas, but just enough to keep the impact on budget manageable.
Ashley Mayes says
April 22, 2016 at 10:37 amThanks Kathy. I totally agree with you. Once the plants grow in a bit, it will look much better. It’s all about that budget and the rocks are definitely a cheaper option. Thanks so much for your comment.
Ann says
April 20, 2016 at 11:43 amYour yard is looking great! I have areas of mulch and gravel paths in our yard as we get rid of our lawn. We were very lucky to score vintage railroad ties for our yard when the local middle school changed their landscaping. The combo of the timbers, rock and mulch are right up my alley.
Ashley Mayes says
April 22, 2016 at 10:37 amThanks Ann. We have more railroad ties in the front but we had to buy ours. You got lucky! =)
Vicki says
April 20, 2016 at 12:36 pmWhat you’ve done looks really nice. However, I will tell you from experience that we “wasted” our money by buying that landscape fabric as weeds still grew up through it – especially bermuda grass, so i will never waste my money doing that again. I have found that weeds & grass & little trees will still grow in your rocks as the wind blows seeds, birds drop seeds, etc and they just need the tiniest bit of soil to take root, so we still are pulling weeds out of the rocks. So most of mine have been replaced through the years by placing down a heavy mulch of wet newspapers & cardboard (i wet it as i lay it down) which chokes out the weeds & turns to compost through the years – then i plant my plants (actually plant them first & then lay the newspaper) and a have layer (3-4″) of mulch. To refresh the mulch, i use a leaf rake & I always use the cypress mulch. I do not like the looks of the “red” cedar mulch & I LOVE the black mulch (which makes it look like well manicured dirt from far away) but i HATED the fact that black mulch shows every little seed pod, lint, anything that happens to blow into it (much like lint shows up on a dark carpet) & it made my flower beds look “messy” so i ripped the black mulch out & went back to my old standby cypress mulch – its the best. I’m a master gardener in Kansas & we have a lot of trees as well – but each year I have to “weed” my flowerbeds once in the spring, refresh the mulch by raking the top with a leaf rake & then if needed, i add more mulch & i have good looking flower beds. Short of having a lawn service come & take care of my big yard (almost 1 acre) it will never be perfect, but it looks pretty good. I said all that to say – don’t be surprised if you still have to “weed” your rock border. It won’t fade like mulch, but you will find that leaves, etc will still get caught in your rocks as well so you will still be “cleaning” your flower beds to keep them looking top notch. But you’ve done a good job & it looks good – once your pants fill in, you will like it more – its just not “maintenance free” like i was hoping mine would be after using the landscape fabric & rock. Keep growing – a garden is ever evolving!!!
Vicky says
April 20, 2016 at 9:16 pmI have the red pumice rock and it is about 4″ deep, I also have a weed barrier that is a grey color. Not a problem with weeds. I also have a crabgrass front yard and do have to trim along the edge so it does not creep into the rock. I love the pumice rock and have not had a problem with it growing weeds or anything in it. I have never tried the river round rock so I can’t comment on it. I do love the red pumice rock.
Ashley Mayes says
April 22, 2016 at 10:40 amYou laid your rock deeper than we did. I think that’s a key point. I think ours sits about 2.5″. That’s definitely something to remember for next time. Thanks Vicky.
Ashley Mayes says
April 22, 2016 at 10:38 amThanks Vicki. Newspaper is such a great idea. I don’t think the landscape fabric is quite a waste but I don’t think it’s foolproof either. Thanks so much for the encouragement. You are totally right, it’s always evolving. Hope you enjoy your space this year.
Cynthia Bliss says
April 20, 2016 at 2:48 pmAs the years go by dirt will creep into the rocks and weeds will start to grow ( I know because my backyard is all rocks here in Orlando). So eventually you will have to spray weed killer to get rid of them.
Ashley Mayes says
April 22, 2016 at 10:39 amI’m sure you are right. I’m hoping the landscape barrier will help but I definitely don’t think it’s a miracle product. Thanks so much for your comment.
Gregory Willard says
July 6, 2016 at 7:23 amI have always loved the look of a good rock garden. I really like that you cut out holes in the weed barrier for the plants, and then covered it with rocks. I may have to steal this idea for our patio. Thanks for the ideas.
Ashley Mayes says
July 8, 2016 at 11:27 amOf course, thanks!
Mark says
August 18, 2016 at 4:54 amFor the looks I would say combination of these two. You can make great combinations of shapes and colors with rocks and mulch. But I agree with you that rocks are way easier to maintain.
Ashley Mayes says
August 27, 2016 at 11:57 amI totally agree with you! Thanks for stopping by!
Tomas Killington says
May 10, 2017 at 9:26 amMy sister recently moved into a home that has a large yard. She wants to beautify the area while keeping it low maintenance. I didn’t realize using river rock in landscaping can be quite affordable because it can be purchased by the truckload. I’ll be sure to share this information with my sister.
Carol Cummings says
July 29, 2017 at 1:34 pmWe landscaped with rocks around our big front porch and love it.we chose a light orange colored rock to match the bricks in our house and it’s lovely.
Hazel Owens says
September 13, 2017 at 6:33 pmMy husband and I were going through this same debate about our backyard. We wanted to decorate it but we wanted to use less- expensive materials. We were amazed at how much cheaper river rock was than the other things that we have been looking at. It also adds such a clean feature and makes everything look more organized. Thanks for sharing!
Jiwon Kapkin says
February 8, 2018 at 1:29 pmWe have the similar problem with our backyard patio area. The mulch around the patio is making a lot of mess especially with our puppy running around all the time. I’ve suggested using the rocks to cover the area to my husband sometime ago and after seeing what you’ve done, we’ll definitely go for the idea.
Ashley Mayes says
February 20, 2018 at 9:35 amYes! We really love having the rocks… so much easier to maintain!
Linda Neighbors says
May 27, 2019 at 4:29 pmDo you really have to put down a weed barrier if you use rock?
Ashley Mayes says
May 30, 2019 at 4:11 pmYou probably don’t but we didn’t in a different area and have had more issues with weeds there.