On Aug 7, 11:39?am, "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:
"stillill" wrote in message

...



Hello,

I was looking for some advice on how best to cover our front garden,
which is just beds with a couple of rose bushes. There are no bedding
plants as we don't have time to maintain them really.

I was thinking of just covering the beds with weed control material,
and putting down some mulch to cover the area. The garden is flat, and
I was worried about the mulch bark chippings blowing away. Is this
likely? Alternative is to use something like pebbles or similar.

We don't really mind that much how it looks (it is a rented house and
the landlord is letting us doing it and paying for it), just that it's
easily maintainable.

Shredded mulch stays put better than chips, which tend to blow around. As
others mentioned, forget the pebbles.

Pine bark nuggets block weeds the best, shaped like large flat stones
they overlap and do an excellent job of blocking weeds, and they're
relatively dense so they don't blow away even in gale winds. And
knowing that everyone's sense of aesthetics varies I still think fresh
pine bark nuggets look a heck of a lot nicer than sheds and chips of
nondescript origin... shreds decay rather rapidly, chips tend to float
away in heavy rains. Pinebark is actually quite impervious to decay
and insects. Shreds and chips are an excellent way to introduce
diseases and insects into a garden; either use totally composted
organic matter (which makes for a terrible weed blocking mulch) or
some type of wood that is naturally averse to decay and insect
infestation... redwood, cypress and pine bark are all good choices.

There are also various grades of weed block cloth... I've tried many
kinds in all different price ranges... the one sold by Leevalley.com
is by far the best value, I get better than 10 years from theirs.

Btw, the proper underlayment for pebbles is polyethylene sheeting, not
cloth. For landscape work polyethylene is available with minute
perforations; permits water and air to pass. But I still don't
recommend pebbles, not unless you're of the trailer trash head set...
crushed white marble makes a wonderful backdrop for plastic pink
flamingos up against your very classy turquoise doublewide [trailer].

Sheldon