I have a long, narrow flower bed along the front of my house. it has a bunch of rocks, wood chips, weeds, remnants of bushes/plants that i dug up, and dirt. all i want in the end product is white landscape rocks with larger rocks scattered here and there, the two remaining bushes that are there, and maybe a couple decorations. I hate bees and that’s why i’m getting rid of all the flowers and junk. plus it looks a mess right now. i’m going to put those nice bricks along the flower bed so it’ll look real nice. suggestions? methods? precautions? objections?
I can tell you one thing. Put down some sort of weed barrier under your rocks so that you don’t have a problem with weeds.
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First of all, spray the area with Round-up, so that any weeds, grass, plants are killed before you start. It is safe to replant in the same area after 7 days, so no worries there. If the rocks and wood chips present are going to interfere with the end result, just shovel up most of it, otherwise, you can just spread them thinly over the entire area and cover them up with the new rocks.
After spraying and prepping the old rock/chips, cover the bed with landscape fabric(Weed-X is a great product, and runs about 15 bucks for a 3×75′roll at Wal-mart or Lowes/Home Depot). Cut an “X” in the fabric to slip them over the 2 shrubs you wish to keep, and secure the fabric to the ground with a some long staples, sold at the same type stores. edge the bed with your bricks, then cover the fabric with the marble chips.
one word of caution, white rocks magnify the sunlight, which could potentially be harmful to a few shrubs that are a bit more sensitive(scorched foliage)-also, make sure you have some contrasting color on those decorations-a long thin stretch of white rock can look kinda odd without some things to balance it out colorwise(med or darker colors, not something light or really bright)
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First off, grab your shovel and a wheelbarrow…get the shrubs you want saved into pots and keep them watered while you prepare the dry rock bed, or they will die.
You can do so many things with a space of that size and length. It doesn’t have to look dry, unimaginative…take a look at these sites for more information on how to arrange the rock, how to prepare the bed…the idea on using mulch fabric to prevent weeds is great. I would also recommend that.
http://landscaping.about.com/od/sitegradingdrainage/ht/dry_creek_beds.htm
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1216/is_n3_v197/ai_18783773
Happy Yardening!
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