Why rocks?

Just thought it might look nicer than mulch and so my cats can’t go to the bathroom in it.

I had cats, although I didn't let them go out, now I have neighbor cats roaming my yard looking for mice and chipmunks. I haven't noticed a problem with my mulch.

Your cats have a kitty litter I assume.

I would just use mulch. Plus if they don't go in the mulch, because you put in stones, they will go in the grass.

Cats don't care. They'll go anywhere. We are constantly shooing our neighbour's cats away from the stone paving right upside our back door. Loose stones are difficult to maintain. Debris drifts in, weeds grow and you have to clean them out somehow.

is there a reason you can't have growing plants there?

No rocks. They're a real pain to maintain. Mulch and use a low groundcover.

Remove those existing small rocks, regardless of what material you use for mulch. You already have a hard surface in your landscape - very handsome brick. Decorative rocks don’t belong.

The rocks in the picture are removed now I forgot they were even in the picture! I can have plants but we just pulled them all out to start fresh! I was meaning the small landscape rocks to cover the whole front of the house instead of mulch. But if everyone thinks mulch will look better I’ll stick with mulch!

Not only does organic mulch look better, it is better for the soil and the plants and far easier to keep weeded, clean and tidy!

What you are calling "small landscape rocks" would in fact be gravel mulch. The word "mulch" does not signify what it is made of. It could be made of gravel, wood, hard plant parts, rubber, glass marbles, etc. If you call it gravel mulch, everyone will know what you're talking about. Size is relative. "Small rocks" could be the size of loaves of bread if we're comparing them to boulders.

I just didn’t know what they were called. I always saw them online as landscape rocks or decorative rocks so I guessed.

Rocks to me are much easier to maintain then mulch. Rocks that you can buy in bags.. for those that are unable to vision them.... I first used mulch, and then took it all out and filled the areas in with rocks. I use my awesome Stihl BGA 85 to blow out the leaves since my house is surrounded by trees. I rarely get weeds in them and I can either easily pull them or use my weed eater to remove them. They don't grow back, either. And they are really good around the areas of my roof that does not have gutters. I mix colors of rocks together, some white, some brown and sizes around the house. I have some areas that have bushes that will eventually grow over the rocks, but even there it's easier to blow over the rocks to keep them clean.

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Thanks so much! I just like the looks of rocks better than mulch. I know my house isn’t modern by any means but they just look cleaner and more modern to me. My boyfriends house has rocks instead of mulch and I absolutely love it but their house is gray. I’m not sure if they would even look good with the color of my house.

Interesting point about language here. It seems the word 'rock' covers a lot of sizes. In my version of English a rock is a big thing. The stuff in the picture above would be called stones. If rounded they'd be pebbles. And stones are bigger than gravel.

You can buy different colors and mix the colors to fit your house. I too like the clean look of rocks. And I have gone really low maintenance for my yard and the rocks fit that for me. Good luck.

IMO bagged mulch (dyed wood chippings) are SO much better than rock gravel. I've had both. You don't want to spend time weeding? Start the bed with an application of weed killer. Then add a heavy layer of mulch (4 inches deep-minimum). This makes pulling the occasional "intruder" a breeze. I use "Preen" every 10 weeks on top of the mulch, and "top-dress" the mulch every two years with just enough mulch to "refresh" the color (black). Bagged mulch goes on sale every year (5 bags for $10) - prior to both Memorial Day & Labor Day.

"Rocks to me are much easier to maintain then mulch."

"I just like the looks of rocks better than mulch."

Can't we please just get the terminology correct so that the confusion is ended and so we know it is ended?

Floral hit the nail on the head with, "It seems the word 'rock' covers a lot of sizes." Absolutely!

"I just didn’t know what they were called. I always saw them online as landscape rocks or decorative rocks..." The fact is, such bags of rocks could have multiple purposes in life. The manufacturer would not necessarily know what in the landscape one would use them for. So in the bag and in the store, they may be called landscape rocks or such. But once one uses them as a mulch in a landscape bed, one would refer to them as rock, stone or gravel MULCH. Gravel mulch is the slightly better term because it double describes a layer of small rocks in a landscape bed. They are mulch and serving the purpose of mulch. They are just not made out of wood or rubber. But they are not just "rocks" or "stones" as that could describe any number of other products that are ridiculously far from gravel mulch. It could be huge rip-rap, for example

How do I delete this post? It’s really not that big of a deal.

At the top every post is a delete button. If you're really talking about deleting the thread, it may not be possible as there's a time limit imposed for deleting it. But there's no point in deleting it anyway. People come at any time to read posts and learn from them. Even if they have no meaning, value or educational benefit for the original OP.

Your "rock" choice could be changed to river rock or round smooth pebbles 1 - 3". I would go with sand, grey or black, and polished would make the colour pop a bit more but unpolished would be more subtle and blend into the background. Mulch, although fresh and cheap when first put down has to be maintained and animals can be problematic. You could plant hostas in that area using the river rock as mulch. Very clean and be be done for a traditional look or a modern look.

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Polished creates a nice finished look. Particularly with ornamental grasses but rabbit and cats might be attracted to them.

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Look up river rock and you will find lots of selection locally. You will need to lay landscape fabric down first, nice and thick and then the rock on time. You will have very good protection from weeds and it is 100% DIY. If you are going to plant in the space, you can dig the bed and add soil and plant then lay your landscape fabric but I always find it easier to prep the planting bend, lay the fabric and then cut X out where my plants will go, then I push my plants into the opening in the fabric. The river rock will keep the fabric in place. Super easy and lots of impact.

Enjoy.