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Landscape Design

we would like to line our long governors driveway with river rock.

7 months ago

We would like to line our long governor’s driveway with river rock to keep the weeds off of the gravel driveway. We would prefer to use granite block but we cannot dig along the edge because the tree roots will be disturbed. Any advice?

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Comments (9)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
7 months ago
I'm not sure why you think a river rock or stone edging would keep weeds out of a gravel drive. They won't. Debris and weed seeds will blow or filter in and weed growth is inevitable.
beesneeds
7 months ago
I'm not sure river rock would work. It's just really big gravel as far as weeds are concerned. Still lots of nooks and crannies even in very large bits for weeds to invade.

A lot of folks use weed killers, pre-emergents, and even some weed burners to keep gravel clear.
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Anne Chismar
Original Author
7 months ago
Thanks for your response We have tried river rock closer to the house around a bend in the driveway and we have been pretty successful in keeping the weeds under control in that area. We use Preen for pre-emergent weeds and later weed killers on the rocks to keep the weeds from moving on to the driveway. Of course the weeds will blow in to the driveway but we are able to keep these under control. Otherwise we spend all our weekends pulling weeds from the driveway regardless of weed killers. I am just not sure whether lining a 300 foot driveway will look out of place.
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beesneeds
7 months ago
Suppose it depends on what your property looks like. In some situations it might looks great, in others not so much.
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Anne Chismar
Original Author
7 months ago
Beesneeds, you are right. Guess I will just have to make up my mind. Thanks.
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marmiegard_z7b
7 months ago
See if you can find an inspo pic or visualizer. My mental picture is that it will not look so great to have this different, but knobby/ rocky border on both sides of the more homogeneous gravel, as it introduces a lot more visual pattern.
Plus I’m not sure how patrolling all that on 2 long strips is helpful. Is it just because you think it gives you a better way to use chemical controls, rather than just treatingtgs edge med of the gravel driveway ? Do you have weedy nature growing right up to driveway, and no lawn? And what would be used as an edging barrier for “ the edge of the edge? It’s a boatload of rocks.
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laceyvail 6A, WV
7 months ago
And if there's any danger it will damage trees, well, definitely not a good choice.
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littlebug Zone 5 Missouri
7 months ago
Sounds like it will create a whole lot more work to me. It’s easier to keep weeds under control (which you concede you will likely have no matter what) on a flat surface rather than between rock nooks and crannies.

Will the rocks impede vehicle traffic at all? Like a UPS driver in a hurry or a new young driver knocking them out of place?

Do you have snow removal issues which complicates driveway edging?

Do rocks appear naturally in your landscape? IMO they look quite out of place in a manicured suburban neighborhood.

And what is a governor’s driveway?
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Sigrid
7 months ago
It won't do much for the weeds.
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