Oh, aditionally, I *have* encountered gravel and I find any form quite
annoying, though it'd probably be less annoying around something like a
tree. It's just a nusance though if you want to get in to amend the soil or
whatever, because you have to scrape the stuff back, etc. With mulch, no
harm if some of it gets mixed in with the soil, as it breaks down anyway.

Ali



"Ali" wrote in message
...
How about cocoa shell mulch? I haven't used it myself, but I've seen it
used
on the Victory Garden a couple years go, and it looked interesting. You're
also not killing any trees.

Here's one website I found that described it, and if you do a google on
"cocoa shell mulch" you'll get plenty of others.

http://www.vitasoil.com/cocoa%20main.htm

Hope that helps,

Ali

"jel" wrote in message
...
I have 6 trees in my small yard, and a 40 year old grape vine. I would
like
to stop mowing around each. The typical Ohio solution is to mulch
around
trees. I know of no typical grape vine solution. But I don't want
mulch;
I'd like to do something a little different. Has anyone any
suggestions?
I
am considering gravel - not the driveway grade but the pond grade small,
smooth marble. Any opinions on that? I'll need a retaining solution to
keep the gravel from rolling away. Any suggestions?