This is actually an interesting opportunity for you to delve into the differences between functionality and taste, because it applies not to just the gravel questions (of which there are many) but also plant choices, plant location choices and other issues. You "love the white rocks", so that's a visual impact/connection you have. Maybe you can dissect that even further to help see if you actually love the white rocks, or maybe some more fundamental aspect of it--is it that you think it looks tidy, looks like it might be low maintenance, do you just like rocks, or do you have some color combination or contrast that you're trying to achieve. Functionality would be that there would be some garden/landscape situations in which a rock product--gravel, stones--would achieve an important goal that could not be accomplished by another product. There are some of these situations in landscaping. However, you will find that they are fairly few, in part because rock creates limitations or barriers to other important goals. So, some of the above posts are aimed at identifying the purposes of putting something "on" your garden areas, and see how the rock will or will not accomplish that--such as, if you have leaves and debris falling, your white rocks will get messy and grow weeds and be difficult to maintain, and in the meantime you will not be able to add compost or degradable mulch to improve the soil (a common important goal for most gardeners) whereas these organic "mulches" serve several purposes. Then there is the aspect of color. This aspect can be viewed separately, because first you would decide functionally whether rock/gravel is a good choice (for any purpose--as a mulch, as a pathway material, as a patio material, etc), and then color would be secondary, because there are color choices (and size, and contour). I mostly can't stand white rocks, and I think it's fair to say I have not found any situations in which that appeals to me. However, I believe that is a personal taste issue, and so while we can debate whether my taste is better than someone else's, that is still a sort of style or culture thing that might change over time or in different venues. But almost hidden in my own reactions, are that most of the time white rocks are used in situations where rock itself is a bad functional choice. I have seen a number of photos of arid climate landscapes using rock and gravel in a really cool way. But the ones I like are always in some kind of natural tone. That way the discussion can be more focused on, man, just not the WHITE rocks, vs. whether any rocks are right for the location in question--the same way one might determine, yeah, foliage here is good, but that purple just disappears next to your house color, or that chartreuse clashes, or whatever. Others may have tired of the story of Frankie's white gravel wasteland, but I still have an area of white gravel in a sideyard. I've removed a lot of it and substituted some gray (now aged-color)pavers and some soil planting beds. I had 2 main problems--the wrong functionality and the wrong color. What's interesting is that now that I've reworked some of the area, I can honestly say that my biggest problem now is the color--I hate the white contrast with the other more aged,natural items and plantings I have and desire. But because I have been building in some other functionalities--places to grow soothing shrubs and ferns; a stable sitting patio; and have reduced the remaining gravel to areas in which gravel has some fair funcionality-- the necessary pathways to and from somewhere, or restful contrast to the planted areas--easy to rake--and because I have learned the functionality and maintenance tradeoffs between the problems of gravel vs. planted area(did I mention that all of this area is tightly fenced in and below large oak trees, so there's not the option of simple mow & blow maintenance) I would now have a sitation in which I so wish it were a natural color gravel, since pretty soon I might feel like I could just leave a lot of it as-is and have a nice area. But, it would be too weird (I think) to actually replace my white gravel with a ton of natural gravel. If we get back to color, and you find that you like something about white itself that appeals to you in your curb appeal concept, that opens your options up to seeing whether something else white would serve the same purpose.

There is a local dairy farm about 20 miles away that has always had a nice pile of aged cow manure. I built many a bed with that stuff. But last year they wouldn't sell any. I'm afraid it's become too much of a commodity. I will call them again next spring. I compost all veg. and fruit scraps, plus coffee grounds and eggshells. My neighbor contributes their food scraps as well to my pile. But I never have enough homedmade compost. When I first started gardening here I tried to get as many compost piles going as I could and turned them often. Then I found I was spending too much time in the garden and didn't have time to "maintain" so many piles. We don't have "mushroom compost" around here, but we do have "seafood compost". There are a few facilities that take the waste from the lobster and fishing industry and compost it. Very good stuff, you can see tiny bits of shells in it. I had 12 yards delivered last year when I was building the rose garden. One fall I went to one of the coves where seaweed collects. I hauled as much as I could in trash bags in my trunk. Not a good idea as the bags leaked. I have to know when to draw the line for my garden. Standing on slippery rocks in waist-high water pulling up slimy seaweed, then having a car that smelled like the marsh on a hot day was above and beyond the call of duty. If I don't have a finished pile of compost or manure to dig from, I will buy those bags (20 lbs?) of "composted cow manure" from Walmart or Home Depot. 1/2 to 1 bag worked in to each rose hole. Probably the best thing I do is mulch with finely shredded leaves. You can scrape back the mulch and uncover dozens of worms per sq. ft. everywhere in my garden. It is a lot of work each fall, as we have to collect at least 100 bags of leaves and shred them with the riding mower, then rake them up again and haul them throughout the garden. It takes a good 2 weekends.

It depends upon where and what you are using it for. I have a strip of ground immediately next to the house that nothing will grow in. It gets too much shade, no moisture and its compacted from construction. I didn't want mulch right next to my foundation, so I put in a strip of what we call "river rock". I put landscape fabric under the river rock, to keep the rock on top of and seperate from the soil. I do not plan on planting anything in this strip of rocks. Its simply to act as a soil cover, to keep dirt from splashing/blowing up on to the foundation. But in most of my planting beds, I use primarly shredded wood chips (from a pallet disposal place) or shredded leaves for mulch. I do need to do an occaisional weeding and I re-apply mulch periodically as needed. Its not so easy to re-apply rocks, and eventually they fill in with soil and grow weeds. I would stay away from rocks and fabric for planting beds. But rocks and fabric can play a role in the landscape, it just depends upon what your goals are.

i wanted to extend on this question a bit more after i got these great answers so thakn you to everyone! so as long as the weight of the rock isnt too much, the soil should be just fine. what about when there are thick concrete blocks or stacks of bricks directly over the soil? i assume this would compact it seriously and make it inhospitable? i often see tree and shrub roots make their way under heavy pavements, brick and concrete wall blocks. for example, in my backyard, there was a 5 foot raised bed installed with concrete blocks stacked on top of each other. right next to that, no more than a few inches away, the trunk of a citrus tree with roots that are all under the raised bed. shouldnt the weight of the 5 foot concrete blocks and the weight of the 5 foot soil be making the soil beneath the 5 foot mark too compacted for the roots to colonize? this was done by the previous owners and we really like the citrus tree and would like to save it if there is an issue of the concrete blocks "smusing" the roots and the soil around it additionally my neighbors yard and my own are separated by a large retainer wall. they have a lemon tree hiked up right next to the retained wall on their side that had been planted AFTER the construction of the wall. its roots are shooting over to my yard and going through any soil that has compaction exerted by the retainer wall