Growing grass over gravel road
Eden-Manor
11 years ago
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11 years agorobin0919
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Grass vs. Gravel
Comments (6)My sideyard. It was impossible to keep the St Augustine nice because we have moles that come out of the field in the back. So voila! no more moles! In my situation gravel is a no-brainer. I would not go back to grass. My backyard. The gravel was put down in the spring of 2008. I put brick edging down in this spring. This is called spurge. I hate it. If left alone it gets to be 2' across and reseeds terribly. I just used RoundUp in the front circle after I let it get out of hand. I have bought Halts to prevent this in the future but haven't put it out yet. This one is about 5" across and comes out easily. This is the type of weed I get in the backyard. It pulls out easily. I found 2 of them when I was taking photos today. They're not a problem. This one is about 3" tall. It just rained, and you can see the gray color darkens when wet. The grass on the left is not on my property. It's part of the water retention area, but I planted it and mow it. It's the only grass I will have soon. My front garden. This photo was taken before I mulched in May so I'm embarrassed that it's not pretty. It's called crushed granite, and stones are 1/2" and smaller. I laid 15-year weed cloth from Lowe's under it. The gravel is about 2"-3" thick. You can make it thicker if you want. I push a wheelbarrow on it without a problem. After you first spread it, it will feel a little squishy under your feet, but when you hose it down well, the dust washes down and the gravel will lock into it and the jagged cuts of the gravel lock into themselves, making it very solid and easy to walk on - but NOT with bear feet. You can see I have oak trees, and they drop leaves constantly it seems. It surprised me how well the blower works on the gravel to get rid of the leaves. You can't blow straight down, but if you do, the damage is easily smoothed out with your foot. I use oak leaves for mulch so they're always blowing around. Gravel in my yard is as close to maintenance free as you can get short of pavement. I have one last strip of grass alongside the driveway which is coming out in the fall. I would not use it without weedcloth, but it doesn't migrate into the beds even without the edging. It does look better with edging. Hope this is helpful. They use this stuff in parking lots a lot. BTW, I bought what they called "contaminated granite". It had pieces of limestone in it whether by accident or on purpose I don't know. But regular crushed granite was $60 a yard, and this was $35. To me the few white rocks scattered around don't look bad, aren't really noticeable. Sherry...See Morebuilding a gravel/stone path in the grass
Comments (7)Yah, do a search of this forum for pea gravel. The black stuff is called landscape fabric and I think it should be banned from the face of the earth. It is a tough question, that's why it gets asked so often. The thing is that grass and weeds not only can pop up from under, but also seed into the pebbles and grow in the dirt and composted leaf debris that inevitably collects among them. My question, honestly, is why anyone would want to build a path out of pea gravel, given that stepping stones will slide around on them and they are a nightmare to maintain. It is the last material that I would choose. Why not just put stepping stones into the grass itself? KarinL...See MoreGrowing Grass Over Clay
Comments (2)The soil should actually be fine (plenty of us grow grasses in clay soils). But you can certainly remove the top six inches of soil in that area and replace with a good quality top soil if you wish. Don't remove too much less than that if you replace the soil as the roots dislike moving from one soil type to another. They'll tend to do what they would in a clay pot--stop at the interface, which will lead to short-rooted grass that never looks great. Other than that, seed, and you can gently rake the surface to loosen it up if you want. It's already been heavily disturbed, so the normal rules about not tilling don't apply, although I'd still avoid it. On a slant, I'd be inclined to put burlap down to reduce erosion while the grass grows. Tack it down at least at the edges well enough that flowing water won't easily go under the burlap and lift it. Water gently two to three times a day until it sprouts fully (about a month if the mix contains bluegrass, two weeks if it's fescue and/or ryegrass), then back off slowly on the watering to allow the grass to adjust....See MoreWhat will grow in nearly pure sand & gravel?
Comments (9)If you add a lot of oragnic stuff...just lay it on top you won't have nutrient problems. 4 years ago I planted hosta in gravel. I cut down some bushes, under a big maple, that had been mulched with rock for years and re mulched and it was about 7 or 8 inches thick and full of decaying leaves and and pine needlas etc. Never removed the stump nor the roots, nor the gravel. I pried small holes in that awful quartz rock and stuck some starts of hosta in the holes, and covered it all up with wood chips. Less than 2 years later it was cram jammed full....hosta touching each other. No fertilizer...just mulch and lots of water. You won't be able to do lots of water, unless you have a very long hose...but my point is, there will be enough nutrients for you plants, and the stuff you pile on breaking down will add enough and in 2 or 3 years you will have lovely plantings. Queen Ann';s lace grows well in gravelly spots as does ox eye daisy, some ornamental grasses, iris to name a few. Linda C...See MoreEden-Manor
11 years agosoutherncanuck
11 years agoclaireplymouth z6b coastal MA
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