Best material for landscaping around foundation?

[quicksandfarmer]

Right now my lawn just goes up to the edge of the foundation, which is a pain because I have to mow and trim close to the house. I want to put something down that will keep the weeds down and be low maintenance. So far I've thought about:

• 
  Wood chips -- would require periodic replenishment and may be more welcoming to bugs and burrowing animals than I would like right next to the foundation.

• Rubber mulch -- longer lasting than wood chips, but might not be aesthetically acceptable.
  

• Gravel -- I think would require some sort of edging to separate it from the lawn. I don't like to mow over gravel because I worry about the mower picking up and throwing pieces.

I considered pouring a concrete apron but my wife thinks that would be ugly.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[/pine]

A combination of landscape timbers and landscape masonry units or stone to sculpt borders ...and the mulch of your choice...of course a string trimmer will be required to groom up against the borders...

 

[yelbike]

I just did this project last fall. I used green treated 6*6 timbers in 16' lengths which go all the way around the house roughly 36" away from the house. The dirt was graded away from the house first for drainage. I put heavy landscape cloth down than back filled with 1" river wash stone. I think it looks nice and its not encouraging rodents to nest or borrow. The timbers held together with rebar to each other and into the ground. So far so good.

 

[dave1949]

I agree with your wife on the concrete.

One thing to keep in mind, there are problems that require digging up around a foundation such as drainage repair, waste lines, etc. I would chose something that would be easy to deal with if that ever became necessary.

I laid colored concrete pavers along one side of our old house. It was a sidewalk and foundation border combination. It was fairly nice looking. It was under an eave and like many houses around here, we didn't have gutters. Hard surfaces tend to give more splash when it rains, so if your exposed foundation height is low, it is not good for the siding.

How about some rubber horse stall mats? Lay them down with the pebbly side up and paint them green? Just joking, but it's a good bargaining chip with the wife. :laughing:

 

[rtimgray]

I'm a big fan of rock next to the house, for reasons others have described. When we first did it, we just bought the cheap rolls of plastic edging to contain it. As money has allowed, we have either replaced it with sidewalks around the house or masonry edging. This keeps the stone contained, out of the yard, and the stone doesn't seem to attract insects and pests. We have several small plants in the stone, and it makes it easy to spray weed killer around them to keep everything else did (yes, there is fabric under the stone, but after a few years, stuff started poking through anyway). I also apply insecticide to the stone and foundation walls and it seems to be doing a good job of keeping bugs at bay.

Good luck and take care.

 

[Egon]

Dave 1949 has the least time consuming method. Nothing grows thru and you can mow right over the edge. No need for the string trimmer.:thumbsup:

If there is growth in the spaces between the concrete pavers? Salt, excessive lime or even excessive nitrogen fertilizer can keep stuff from growing. Course if you use the straight fertilizer there may be some black vehicles park in the driveway.

 

[dave1949]

Dave 1949 has the least time consuming method. Nothing grows thru and you can mow right over the edge. No need for the string trimmer.:thumbsup:

If there is growth in the spaces between the concrete pavers? Salt, excessive lime or even excessive nitrogen fertilizer can keep stuff from growing. Course if you use the straight fertilizer there may be some black vehicles park in the driveway.

My side walk/border was on the north side, some green moss filled the cracks after a couple years. Snow shoveling would keep it trimmed down.

Concrete pavers are nice, but not inexpensive if you use the textured and stained versions. I used the type that comes with four different lengths mixed in a pallet. I think they were made in Canada.

Pavers can easily be picked up and relaid if you need. Getting a good compacted stone base is important for keeping them level.

 

[Egon]

Pavers are expensive but in the long run may come out quite economical. Replacing chips is a pain and loose stone always seem's to generate growth of some kind given time.

Our house had landscaping fabric and bark chips. A combination I dislike with a passion. After 14 years the bark is gone and most of the fabric has followed.:thumbsup:

 

[forgeblast]

We have the versa blocks around the house with double ground hardwood mulch (not dyed) We get a truck load of mulch every 3 years sometimes 4. If you go with dyed you have to do more work due to the color fading. Insects don't seem that bad, and when the mulch breaks down I don't have to fertilize any of the plants.

 

[GLyford]

My Dad used 10 mil black plastic with about 2-3" of peastone gravel. Over time leaves, dust, dirt, clippings, and seeds would blow in, so every 10 years or so he'd scoop it up a section at a time, sift the debris out into a wheelbarrow, and put it back. Edging varied from none, to 1x4 pt boards on edge, to bricks, cobbles and pavers laid flat. Mower throwing gravel was never as much of an issue as one would think it'd be, but he also kept his cutting height set fairly high.

Seems to have worked better than the bark mulch I'm using--with or without fabric under it I get weeds. While fabric does seem to keep the numbers down some, in the end they're just harder to pull if there's fabric (switchgrass and sourgrass, mostly). As time and budget allow I will probably change over to something closer to his system. He never had an issue with shrubs getting enough water using the plastic, but he was also on clay which is better at holding water. I'm on sand, so might have make allowances to let more water through..

Edited to add: I should mention that the layer of stone does a pretty good job of keeping the sun from breaking down the plastic.