Hello!

First time poster! Okay, I have a question. I recently moved to a country home. The entire house is surrounded by river rock as a border. Should I remove the rock, or keep it? If I should keep it, how do you work with this decor? So far, I've just shoveled some rock out, cut the liner, & planted my rose bushes or lavender seeds.

Four years ago we bought a home with tons and tons of river rocks in several of the beds. We took most of them out simply because I wanted ALL the space to plant. My style is informal cottage gardening. We reused some of the rocks. We offered them for free to some neighbors and a gang of people came and took them away. We still have some areas where we still want to remove them but other projects ahead of that.

If you want to keep the rock but just plant some things in the beds make sure you remove the liner for a large area around whatever you plant. That way the roots get plenty of water.

I would remove all the plastic from under the rock. Plastic tends to cause the soil to compact and sour. Your plants will be happier without it. Where does that drain pipe go? I would worry if its just going into a dry well.

I live in the desert - my whole yard is sand and rocks. I move them aside to plant and don't worry about them. Here is a photo of my yard, rocks and all.


Daisy

Thank you for your comments!
It's like a fabric liner... still remove it?
I live in the country, so I assume (and maybe I'm way wrong) but I assume it goes to the well or sewer?
After paying close attention on my walk today at work, I noticed a lot of people have this river rock & they are still able to get nice big bushes to grow in that environment. I must just have to move the rock, cut the liner, & plant.

If the water flows through it, you can leave it. Try tearing a piece and decide what it will do in a couple years. That stuff can get ugly. I think its supposed to keep the weeds down but it only makes weeds harder to pull. Can you see I'm not a fan? You have my permission to ignore me.

Daisy

I have found a rock edge to be difficult to maintain, but yours looks like some sort of interlocking pieces (?) so may be easier. What I found with actual river rock is the grass just grows between the rocks making a rather messy look. The only place I've used landscape cloth is below a bark pathway. It works OK, but the weeds just colonize on the surface and eventually grow their roots through the cloth. Not enough to rip it out, and it does seem to deter weeds. Since this is a new home for you, I'd wait and see how things go this summer then decide what to do (if anything).