Hypatia Nachshon wrote:
....
Any experience/advice gratefully received,

i would not ever use rocks under a tree or in any
other area that might get debris from a plant. it's
just too hard to keep weeds from getting going in the
rocks once the moisture levels get high enough to
sprout seeds.

if, however, you are bound and determined to use
gravel, use larger stones (that won't move around as
much, pea gravel goes all over the place) and put them
down deep enough that any seeds that fall into them
will not germinate. this will keep the weeding down
for a while, but eventually when the rocks fill up
with enough debris they'll need to be cleaned out
again to get the less weed sprouting conditions
restored. underlayment weed barrier is very much
worth the effort. keeps the seeds from the subsoil
being moved around and then sprouting.

the only areas that are nice for smaller pebbles are
the sorts of gardens where you might want to do the
raked patterns like a Japanese garden. which implies
that most leaves/debris are picked up frequently and
it's not impossible to weed such a small space.


songbird