Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. I bought this house last fall and this is the first summer I am doing the gardening. Everything is good except cleaning those rock and gravel. I had gravel/stone path and stone bed. I used blower and leaf vacuumn but not too effective. My next plan will be using propane torch and top up with gravel. However, I would like to check to see if there is another affective way to do this cleaning. Thank you everyone for your help.
by Turbulent_Impact_673
5 Comments
There’s not really. Try to keep on top of removing organic matter before it breaks down.
When it gets too dirty, the most effective (and a lot of labor) way to refresh it will be to lift the top layer and rinse it. Preferably by creating a sieve (mesh hung over something like a cart with holes or a ladder that can support the weight but allow water through) to rinse the gravel and then replace. It sucks but if you stay on top of maintenance, it’s not something that you have to do often.
You’re cleaning your rocks with a propane torch? How does that clean them?
Why are you trying to “clean” it?
I don’t. Organic matter will break down and soil will fill the gaps. I wet mine and run a plate compactor over it once a year to keep it compacted so weeds don’t grow easily. I top up with more gravel every few years.
I some of my clients go for rock gardens like this and it’s the worst. One of them has gout weed creeping in from the neighbours side so whenever im there it’s 3 hours of sorting through baseball sized rocks to try and get at the roots that are growing above, below and through the landscape fabric placed under the rocks😭
But anyways if you need to clean off the top of the rocks the best method is to use a old-school straw “witch” style broom and gently sweep the top of the rocks to collect leaves and plant matter. You’ll just have to accept you won’t be able to get everything and, as other commenters said, you’ll have to do some rather labour intensive “cleaning” of the rocks every five to ten years to remove soil buildup and the invasive plants that got firmly rooted over the years.