stones for mulch

does anyone use small stones for mulching.
1 inch or bigger.
ive got it in my flower beds.
its cheaper 3.00 per bobcat scoop.
looks nice.
leafs blows out easy.
with plastic, last longer than mulch.

 

Regular mulch will keep an area moist for steady plant growth....but I do like the rocks in some cases (we have down a couple of "rock jobs")

 

I've never used stones for mulch, but have been taught that the stones might cause damage to plant material due to excessive heat held by the stones and radiating to the foliage. I'm in Charlotte, NC, and the summers do get quite warm.


Happy New Year
Bill Craig

 

I'm in central FL and many people use white marble stones for their beds. The last couple of years people have been using the red/brown lava stone but it is quite expensive. I don't really encourage the stone mulch because I hate installing cypress mulch let alone stone mulch that weighs much much more. Although it was outlawed by the civic assoc some years ago, some homeowners still have their entire yards done in stone like out in Arizona. No grass to mow. They just go out once per week with a spray bottle filled with roundup and spray anything green. I've never heard of the stone hurting plants because of the heat. If it did, we'd surely have that problem here. It gets up in the mid to high 90's for most of the summer here.

 

We use Tipple Red and other decor stones when they are needed, as in drip dranage from roof and where ever there might be dranage problems as where mulch will wash out.

 

thanks for info guys
i had this in last spring.i did look under the plastic a
few times when it was hot here dirt was pretty damp
also i had done mother inlaws she loves the look
the flowers in it did good.
i also had done around trees and when i would mow the mower
didnt throw these rock but the other mulches seemed to get
sucked under mower
leaves & grass that ended up in them was easy to blow out
and keep clean looking
i had thought that not having to mulch with reguler every
year it would be a good selling pitch for the stone
can i get more replies thanks

 

We have used lava rock quite a bit this year. It isn't cheap, but it looks good and outlasts mulch if that is what the customer is looking for. We do generally use weed block liner when doing lava rock and that further adds to the high price. I was just looking at one we did last spring and it looks just as good today.