So on the left is a rose bed with stone and landscaping fabric underneath. On the right is the same flower bed except I removed all the stones. I took the stones and started washing them on the screen on the orange bucket. There was an unbelievable amount of organic material mixed with the stone.
On the right I laid down cardboard and started to put down the cleaned stones.
Farther to the right and not pictured are some big ass 100’ pine trees that don’t belong to me.
So my question is – is this the only way to renew the stones and rid all the organic material that makes it look like crap?
Prior to the stones I use to use mulch, but squirrels continually dive bomb it creating holes for their nuts and weeds spring up from there. I thought stones would cut down on maintenance, but it hasn’t. When I try to blow out or hose out the material from the stones is just washes them away.
I’d appreciate any advice 🙂
by Me_Krally
15 Comments
those pine trees are basically dumping organic matter all year round so yeah you’ll need to clean stones periodically or switch to something that looks good even with debris mixed in
Yup that’s the way.
I made a 2×4 frame then attached the screen
Hope your chickens didn’t get out
Do you really want to repeat this every few years? Stones are not a good mulch in most of the United States. Maybe in Arizona and other dry climates, but not where there are leaves, trees and debris constantly. Plants appreciate a nice organic mulch a lot more also, try a coarser mulch.
After you get it all clean, use a blower regularly once a week all over it
Get rid of the rocks. I just got rid of all the Rocks around my house because after 15 years I couldn’t take it anymore. You’re constantly having to do that or add more stones. I thought they were less work than wood chips but they’re actually more work and it’s harder work
Those stones are way too tiny, they’re gonna collect soil and let weeds grow.
But if you want to clean them off and use for something else just use a hardware store bucket and drill drain holes underneath and hose it off.
I recommend you get some landscape rocks at least 3 inches big. The deeper the rocks the less weeds can emerge.
The damned squirrels. I started putting bamboo skewers around anything I don’t want them to dig up. It works but my raised beds look like I’m preparing tiny medieval warfare
Yes there’s a better way. Build a bigger screen that is supported by a frame.
Bigger stones that will not blow away wh3n you blow out the beds
There’s still time to not put rocks there. Research why rocks are a horrible mulch. You (or likely the next owner) will curse you for decades because of this decision.
Rake, blower, hose. You can do this op
When I was a kid we had a huge evergreen in our front yard that my mom at some point put river rocks around the entire base out to the ends of the bows. Every could have years she would go through and remove all the rocks clean out pine needles and then put the rocks back. She was a little neurotic.
Use a shop vac but hold it high enough to not suck the rocks up. Afterwards open the shop vac and grab the rocks out that did get sucked up.
I’m jealous of your setup