I dont know if it is a "NO NO" or not, but in terms of something that WILL work, I have had exceptionally good luck with the following;

1. Decide where, (exactly the area)you want covered by rock, and weed it clean. Then use a heavy mettle rake to get it as clear as you can.
2. Unfold sections of the newspaper,(excluding the Glossy colored advertizing slicks) and cover the area you will be eventually covering with plastic with overlaping THICK sections of paper, have the pages end up being at least 8 pages thick over all.
3. get the hose and gently wet the whole thing down. Once its wet, it sticks together and wont be as inclined to fly around, but at first when you are wetting it you can blast the stuff all off of there. When it sort of melts down to a thick layer with no loose pages stop.
4. Unroll the plastic.
   This is where I break wiht tradidtional thought, I dont use the black type, I use the "clear"(sort of opaque)stuff, I get only 6 mil, NEVER LESS and I allways double it. no exception. I get it in a box/100ft roll at the home depot. which ever one you use, you have to cover it all over with something. Rocks, mulch, pea gravel, what ever, but you cant leave the plastic showing, because it will break down if the sun gets to it and be a big flakey nasty mess with weeds growing through in no more than a year. If you use the combination of the newspaper, and the weeding and the "something completely covering it" (no plastic showing) it should hold very well for quite a while. You do not need to use any chemical sprays or plant killers with this. I am sure there are a lot of ways to get the job done, but I have never had any thing go wrong with this one.

It goes with out saying, (I am channeling the voice of my dad now, Wierd!) that you would make sure that there was at least a tiny amount of slope going down away from your foundation, and not going down toward it. You would not want all the moisture from every rain hear after going TOWARD your foundation/crawlspace/basement. good luck

Suffocates soil, which is a living, breathing community. Nevertheless weeds will find a way up through it anywhere it is exposed to light and photodegrades enough to develop a hole or tear or is broken (torn) mechanically. Probably have to employ a thick mil like might be used to line a pool to get around this. But there still will be the problem of decomposed organic litter accumulating ON the plastic and supporting weed growth. Bark mulch provides an excellent substrate for weeds after it gets old enough.

Thats why you paper mulch first, it makes a huge difference in what will germinate, as well, things with running roots are not inately drawn toward the dark. I have taken up plastic/paper that has had 8/15 inch pavers or rocks on it for up to 3 years, in areas up to 3 ft wide, and found nice heatlthy worms there, As well as ants, and a few little roots that are creeping around. Nothing short of a nuclear blast is permanant. We know this. but I dont think plastic /paper is the big monster that some people say it is. I prefer it to any chemical solution. If it really bugs some one to use plastic, they can just newspaper mulch. that wont last more than one year tho. I have used a double thickness of 6mil plastic with the paper for a further light barrier, AND kept pockets of composted organic matirial from building up to the best of my ability And weeded, and had a nice area of river rock.(That has held a long long long tme) not huge, but nice, Was it work? sure it was, if I wanted it to be simple, Id have put in some patio.

Nasty Nasty Nasty, Why not just ask him if he was going to stick a row of purple petunias behind a row of low marigolds all around the thing and call it good? That's something you frequently see along side bark mulch.

A search of this forum using the terms "landscape fabric" "mulch" or "rock mulch" will turn up lots of discussions about those topics. No point in repeating the whole thing every time there's a question.

Then you can make your own decision on the best way to proceed. Let us know how it works out.

Well, I tell ya what... We moved two years ago, and immediately began adding planting beds that we mulched thickly with bark. The previous owners weren't gardeners, but did have several areas plastic'd and river rock'd with pots sitting on top of the rocks.

There are a couple out-of-the-way spots where we haven't replaced the rock, and I swear to you those are the ONLY places where I have to weed regularly. It's not just that the plastic breaks down --dirt and weed seeds and junk blows into the rock and settles in on top. Weeds can sprout in an amazingly small amount of soil!

And then weeding in rocks kills your fingers, and it seems you can never get it all pulled out; there's always a scrap of root left that you couldn't get your fingers around. I've been tempted to just Round-Up the rocks regularly, but then I'd have to pick out yellowed dead weeds, which isn't really an improvement.

I would NEVER do plastic sheeting and rocks. Besides the pain-in-the-butt weeding maintenance, there's the matter of the plastic killing off the nutrients in the soil by suffocation, leaving you with dead dry soil. Plus, rocks heat up and stay hot, so you end up frying the roots of any plants you tuck into it. You'll never have plants that thrive if they're buried beneath plastic and rocks.

Saypoint, for the most part the subject matter on these boards is such that if we tell a new poster to just search the forum every time they post a topic that has been well hashed over already the forum will become largely Q: "What about....?" A: "Search the forum." Nevertheless, I do sometimes suggest that someone search the forum when it seems it might help them get more information, as when they only got a couple responses (or fewer).

This is a start regarding recent threads on landscape fabric/plastic and the problems it causes.

It should be emphasized that non-biodegradable weed block is bad for the soil and greatly restricts what you can do with plantings (a fine mess ensues whenever something has to be moved or replaced, self-sowing of useful plants is inhibited, plants send superficial roots out into the mulch over plastic and become sickly, etc.).

DON'T DO IT! I'M BEGGING YOU! YES I AM SHOUTING!

Here is what that nasty black plastic looks like many years down the road...with I don't know how many tons of white "landscapers stone" on it...the bane of my existence...(Well, one of the banes of my existence...)

{{gwi:29485}}
(Please ignore the dead hose and leaves...)

Please don't do this to the subsequent owners of your property. It ages. It shreds. It ends up in the environment. It will make subsequent property owners weep.

Seriously.

The river rock will still grow weeds---once dirt sifts in on TOP of the plastic.

The multiple layers of newspaper trick works--even without the plastic--but your landscaper may not be willing to do it. I don't know what the solution is, but it ISN'T plastic.

melanie

I wouldnt wait for a landscaper to do the paper. I mentioned it because Its the kind of thing a person could do them selves. As to the sight in your picture, I also dont know why any one would have put rock in a place like that. Its got lots of little tree trunks in just that tiny picture you diplayed. That would tell a person that its a non-candidate for the rock. I would have guessed that any one would know that you would never do rocks in the path of falling leaves, but I guess I am wrong. In the part of my garden that has leaves that fall, I have leaned into it and planted stuff where the leaves fall down through and make a natural compost for the area, this would work best with small to tiny leaves. It is really bewildering that some one would do that rock thing in that area tho........

It seems like a no brainer to me, but why would any one try to plant plants through plastic? I would only put it in that place (under a path of pebbles or pavers that the odd grass root is still trying to reclaim, under the little pebbley area where the gargage can sits, in a corner with rocks around pots of plantings clustered on top of it, etc....) where I want NOTHING to grow. or where you are clustering potted arrangements because except for the few stray weeds, nothing much does grow there well. Its not intended to plant plants through. It is intended to keep stuff from growing. Much in the same way folks (not me) use round up. If you are going to plant something, then of course it would be obviouse that you would weed/do the paper mulch thing if it works for you/then top mulch. Since this is a design site, I thought it would follow that someone would have considered the use/dynamics of the particular sight befor you did anything.

The original question seems to be missing a key point. Why is a rock mulch being used in the first place?

I would never mulch with river rocks in an area that will be planted. Just use mulch. Better for the plants and a lot less work when adding or moving plants.

River rock should be used in areas that will not contain plants. Beside pathways, dry river beds, around the air conditioner etc. In my last house I put down black plastic and covered it with rocks - more than one layer. After a few years some weeds did grow, but much less than regular ground, and the weeds were easy to pull out since they were growing in a less than an inch of soil. After about 6 years, it was still working great.

Last year I created a large dry river bed. Because of the size and the size of the larger bolders, I did not bother with the plastic. In areas that had several layers of rocks, very few weeds have grown. It is only the second summer and I may still learn to hate this system, but so far so good.

madtripper--

Weeds WILL seed in to your "dry river bed"--eventually--but then you have a couple of choices. Hand pull (if you are the hard-core organic type--Not that there's anything WRONG with that!) or Round-up. (Sprayed carefully, on a still day.)

melanie

I just re screen my pool enclosure so i have all this old screen. Can I use th screen as landscape fabric under a paver patio I am planning to do

I am putting down a 400ft gravel driveway. Is it ok to use plastic sheeting underneath or not? There is a downgrade on the entire length.

Hi guys the newspaper idea was awesome because I collect newspapers but I'm afraid that since the beds are only like 10 ft from my foundation that it will attract termites I'm old... So I need the help of you whippersnappers 😁 I'm trying to do this stuff now in my seventies so I can kick back and enjoy 10 years of my life with no yard work 😎🤗🤣🤣

You guys have an awesome ideas this grandma really appreciates every comment.. I trust you guys! ❤️ Thank you for taking the time to read this! ❤️