If you think this through you'll see that while it may help with splashing, it won't help with runoff. Maybe it will invite water to sink into the ground before it has a chance to run off ... since you're creating a sunken area (like a kitchen sink) and then filling it with a porous material, like marbles. Still, you might want to do it for artistic reasons. I wonder why you think normal grading, planting and mulching won't work for controlling water and splashing ...?

Hi Yaadvaark,

Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it. I am open to suggestions, as I am very new to landscaping.

In fact, I have about 80 bags of mulch which I bought on sale lying unopened in my garage.

Any thoughts on how I can use grading and mulching as an alternate solution?

Thanks,

Oxonian

My dad was involved with a project exactly like you describe, a garage complex at the condo association where he lived. They cleared out all the grass and shrubs up against the garages and created what was basically a "moat" around the area and filled it in with rocks. They did this during a drought year. The following year, their garages flooded, and flooded repeatedly. So just as Yaadvaark says, don't create a low area around your house and fill it with rocks, that will be worse than a little backsplashing, that will hold water against your foundation. You want the ground to slope away from your house. In the inspiration photos you posted you can see that the ground slopes ever so slightly AWAY from the house and down the hill. That is what you want. How you achieve that will depend on how your yard is currently graded and sloped. Chances are, it is already sloped away from your house, and you just don't want to mess with what is already there.

The first point about grading has been well made by pinkmountain: that the ground must slope away from the house. Beyond that, the conventional (tried and true) method is to create a planting bed, the front-to-back depth of which must be realistic in order to accommodate the actual growth of plants, and be maintainable. This is probably in the 5' to 8' range. In no case would I make it less than 4' and this is being stingy. Then plant, but not necessarily SMOTHER with plants. You just need a good design. And then mulch a couple of inches depth. I think it's a mistake to make mulch areas that are intended to stay plant free as this means annual (at least) top dressing of mulch to cover the sun-bleached mulch, and often mulch will move about/wash in a heavy rain storm. It's easier to let plants hold the ground in place and eventually be finished with adding any more mulch. Also, a sea of plants looks better than a sea of mulch. While you can use gravel as mulch (and many people do) I don't personally care for it as it makes any future changes to the landscape much more difficult. The conventional way is easier and more forgiving. Gravel mulch can make a certain artistic statement, but this is better conceived in the initial planning stage of the yard, or with the knowledge of grade details.

To add to what Yardvaark and lpinkmountain said, I think where you are makes a difference as far as the practical success of gravel. Here, with our high moisture levels, it requires a lot of maintenance to achieve the weed-free look, either regular applications of herbicide or lots of hand weeding. Likewise, a house without gutters tends to look messy in an area with much rainfall unless the eaves are really wide or there is a ground cover along the drip line to reduce splash onto the building. Using gravel may be different in areas of the desert SW and a more practical solution, though I don't know for sure.