Tips To Help You Add Decorative Rock To Your Landscaping

Decorative rock is a great way to boost the appearance of maintenance of your yard's landscaping. But installing the rock properly is essential to making it look its best. Here are some tips to help you update your yard and landscaping with decorative rock.

Prepare the Soil

When you are preparing to install decorative rock in your yard, be sure that you mark out the area with clear borders. Depending on the size of the rock, you should remove some of the soil and any existing vegetation to clear space for the rock to sit. Remove enough soil that the rock will sit within the soil but protrude slightly from the landscape's profile. You don't want the rock to sit too high above the existing landscaping or lawn, but you don't want it to be too low that the rock will be below the natural soil line.

Remove any weed growth, and treat the area to prevent further weed growth, especially for aggressive growth weeds, such as morning glory. Then, level the soil and tamp it down to compact it and remove any air pockets that will eventually settle. You should plan to install a layer of decorative rock that is deep enough that you don't see the base materials peeking through the rocks. This can require a layer that is a depth of double to triple the width of the rock's average size.

Apply Layer Protection

Unlike wood mulch, pine straw, and other decomposable materials, you will need to install a landscape fabric barrier below your rock. As decomposable mulch breaks down over time, the material will fall back down into the soil and provide beneficial nutrients to enrich the soil. However, rock and gravel do not break down, and they need a barrier between them and the soil to keep them from combining with the soil. You can lose rock into the soil as the soil works its way up, and it will destroy your soil's quality along with your rock covering.

Before you spread out your new rock covering, be sure you install a layer of landscape fabric or plastic barrier. Look for a landscape fabric that will resist decay and that you can cover the entire area, overlapping any edges by several inches. This layer is what will hold the soil and the rock back from combining together and will help keep down weed growth. Then, if you ever choose to restore the site to a landscaped area with vegetation, you can pull up the rock and the landscape barrier to restore the soil to its previous condition.

For more information, contact a decorative rock supplier in your area, such as A & A Materials.

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