Your first clue should have been the labeling on the bag.....real rock is not 'made' by anybody :-) Although in all fairness, wet stone does have a different appearance and generally a more intense coloring than does the same stuff dry.

Are you looking for a lava rock type product, coarse gravel or smoother river rock? Is there a stoneyard or landscape supply outfit nearby? I'd check with them to see what products they might offer.......and they will no doubt be less expensive than HD. But they do tend to sell things in bulk -- no prepackaged bags :-)

What are you trying to accomplish?

Weed reduction? Nothing is permanent on that one. Most hate pulling weeds out of gravel or stones. Yep, eventually the trees, grass, other plants blowing about will distribute adequate organic matter in this alternative mulch and you'll be pulling weeds.

If the mulch you are doing is the hula hoop for trees or "alien tree circles" as the Renegade Gardener puts it, you might want to consider letting your trees "go native". Yep, you will have to pull grass occasionally out of the root flare but six of one, half dozen of another...And no mulch is cheaper than mulch of any kind.

This may sound odd, but a light coating of peanut oil on the rocks will produce a wet look. Don't spill any on your asphalt though...

I mulch using the stuff from the mulch place...it is a mixture of trees and dirt I guess, dark in nature. Yes, it is for weeds primarily. But I am tired of this yearly or bi yearly project. Figured I would put down rocks and be done with it. I like the dark colored mulch I use now, it lightens with the sun, but generally dark in nature. So I figured I would use the red/brown rocks, but like I said, they are too light.

Peanut oil...sounds like it would attract animals??

"I would put down rocks and be done with it"....have you ever tried to weed a rock bed?? As Wellspring notes, you are just replacing one mulch (bark mostly) with another (rock). In a year or so (sooner in our zone) the rocks are full of organic debris and weed seeds. Which are a royal pain to get out - I'm speaking from experience! And as the rock does not nicely degrade over time, you cannot just cover it with a nice clean layer.

Think carefully about this!

I am curious about the peanut oil...

I have rock beds and just blast them with round up when I see weeds. I use the super ground clearing stuff that lasts for months.

There you go...

Sprinkle occasionally with peanut oil.

Blast every few months with chemicals.

Lovely, I'm sure.

Different folks clearly prefer different maintenance tasks. This discussion will have me out today checking the grass / weed growth in the root flare of my trees. Mostly I forget about it. Usually there's little trying to grow there. I keep it more or less clear in the zone at about a 12" to 18" radius from the trunk. One old maple has acquired a partial skirt of tiny hostas -- left over from the days when the tree stood in a landscaped island bed in the middle of the yard.

That bed was ugly in concept and construction. It predated our time here and once removed the front became simpler and more appropriate to our home. We have more elaborate plantings elsewhere, but removal of this bed reduced weeding, mulching, dividing, and seasonal clean-up tasks.

Mulch also has a tendency to migrate, so one occasionally has to return strays to their proper place. Mulched beds require either the labor of trench edging or upkeep of physical barriers to ward off the lawn's encroachment.

I suppose we added a few minutes to our mowing time, but mowing around the island was slower and required getting the power trimmer out to finish the job.

So, if the issue is lowering maintenance and repetitive costs, I'm still wondering if the best solution is rocks, peanut oil, and chemicals?

No mulch, particularly around mature trees, can be an attractive answer.

Wellspring

What is really interesting is seeing how modern materials are being used in the landscape - like chemicals and new mulching methods. Change and innovation are always difficult to grasp - just look at all the uproar over heatlh care reform.

I remember once stating my opinion that I liked dyed red mulch.. oh boy!

I think wellspring is right to question the purpose of materials, whatever they are, around other objects--trees, posts, etc. Usually the purpose is if whatever the area would revert to without mulch, looks worse than the mulch AND the mulch-better-ness is worth the upkeep. So that might be an area that refuses grass, but grows great weeds. In that situation, sometimes a groundcover works better, or sometimes not. Trees that don't have extensive shallow root systems, such as some oaks and some tall pines, that will allow turf grass to grow under, and the area gets enough sun, look great alone. Or, another purpose is if you want certain underplantings that are attractive to look at, in certain areas, and happen to include a tree or mailbox in the grouping--but not for the sole purpose of circling the object.

For more permanently installed rock decor, there are permanent sealants that give the "wet"look, but that's more for mortared decorative rock I think--such as when river rocks are part of a patio-- and not for loose rocks.