TLDR: huge yard, lots of weeds. Currently have rocks on exterior, but area is an absolute wind tunnel and everything gets stuck in crevices of rocks and it looks terrible and gives more opportunities for weeds. Would breeze be easier to maintain?
Hi! I own a rental property in Denver, CO. The unit has a huge front yard that is a massive headache every summer. It's a lot of sqft, requires a lot of work to keep it tame, the tenants never do this and then neighbors complain about the weed field.
It's all bare on the interior of the fence and rocks on the exterior. Even with me trying to clean the rocks regularly, the crevices are always stuffed full with whatever blows in with the crazy winds. For this reason I'm completely ruling out mulch.
I'm willing to invest in the landscaping, but I want to be sure whatever I do is lower maintenance. I'm currently looking at putting compacted breeze down. Like a walkway. I'm hoping that with breeze I would only need to put pre-emergent herbicide down twice a year and then do minimal hand weeding/debris cleaning. And then put down more breeze as needed.
Thoughts?
by OECurious22
5 Comments
This subreddit is for no lawns. A rock lawn is still a lawn. Lawns aren’t only grass, a clover monoculture is also a lawn. Concrete or compacted rock is also essentially a lawn in the eyes of this sub.
Some nice native plants would be the easiest option, they’re native to the area and won’t need watering or much fertilizer after they are established, just trimming on occasion. But no matter what you pick, you still need to maintain it. Nothing is maintenance free
So you have a great location for very specific kinds of plants.
Native plants are often designed to live in rocky, pour quality, unwatered soil. I would buy a fuck ton of western yarrow and a selection of other plants that are for specific dry, pour quality soils.
Look up “Denver native plant nursery” or “dry rocky pour soil native plants Colorado” and them as seeds and sow the seeds on the rocky soil. Maybe add some sand to the seed to help fill in the cracks between the rocks.
I see the challenge and applaud you for caring about the rental property.
Stone of any size will sink slowly and have dust blow in, creating soil pockets for seeds. This tends to kill just about everything except the plants designed to survive and resprout in hostile conditions. Basically: unattended rock beds are perfect gardens for tenacious weeds and you’re consigned to dump poison on it regularly for as long as it exists.
I don’t quite understand yet why you ruled out mulch. Mulch is the lowest maintenance artificial (ie non-native) cover I’ve used. Mulch allows you to dump new down every year keeping it thick. (You can get wood chips for free from chipdrop.) Mulch can be raked to disturb any sneaky seedlings in a way stones can’t. It can be adjusted, flattened, thickened, and refreshed against blown-in dust in ways rocks can’t.
You can also visit your local native landscaping place and interplantplant a few very low or no-maintenance native species. Tightly planted native perennials do really well at keeping weeds out. There are also solid mat-like plant options for rock gardens. I’ve had to do surprisingly little weeding around sedums. I did a low maintenance planting for my mom and she pretty much ignores it. Chops down in spring before new growth comes in and that’s about it.
Think of it this way: Bare ground of any sort will be broken up and colonized, including concrete. You can colonize it yourself (native mixed plantings), or make it bare again repeatedly (mulch).
(And thank goodness it’s that way, because otherwise any time there was a natural disaster like a rockslide, the land would stay dead. We don’t want that.)
Personally, I suggest native mixed plants which will reduce the heat island effect and benefit local wildlife. I’d rather spend my money on that, herbicides do cost money and time. You might even check your local programs, some places offer rebates and incentives for xerescaping or other benefits for pollinator gardens. Hope you find the right thing for you.
I have no experience with breeze, so I can’t really help you with your actual question, but I’m going to make a few comments anyways
R/landscaping might be a better resource than this sub
If you really want hardscape, maybe pavers would be a better choice? Visually it’ll be similar, and though it’ll be more upfront work, it should sturdier long term
If the other comments persuaded you to consider low maintenance plants (they really will look better!) this a fantastic local resource: https://resourcecentral.org/gardens/
They create basically “kits” of low maintenance, low water plants that do well in the Denver area
I was about to say, for a solid discount on rent I’ll xeriscape and maintain your property LOL but then I realized I’m pretty sure that’s bindweed snaking all through those rocks. 😬 I like my sanity.