Decomposed granite yard with pea gravel

[crazyforlatin]

Does it look good if it covers the entire front yard which is about 500 sqft. There's a drought here and we're trying to be low maintenance. DH already dug out the required depth of 3 inches, but I'm having second thoughts as to the attractiveness of it. Will it just look like compacted dirt? 

[Forget-Me-Not]

Yes, it looks like light red dirt. We have a walkway that wraps around our house with decomposed granite. We may put some crushed rock over it in the future because I'm not crazy about it.

[crazyforlatin]

Not all decomposed granite is light red--ours was gray for many years, but this last round dh got the red stuff.

What do you mean last round? Did it wear down and now requires another layer? Don't tell me that we will need to do this again in a few years.

[Shellydon]

What do you mean last round? Did it wear down and now requires another layer? Don't tell me that we will need to do this again in a few years.

 

It has to be redone every 3-4 years.  Read up before you use it.  It sticks to shoes and gets tracked everywhere and can badly scratch wood floors.  It can grow mold and become slippery and can be very muddy when wet. Grass/weeds grow through and must be sprayed or pulled regularly. 

 

And yes, it looks like red dirt from a distance. 

[crazyforlatin]

Here we use landscape granite, it's a bigger rock so it doesn't blow away in the winds and a dry river rock bed. It's lasted us 10 years so far. We still have plants. There are plenty of xeriscape plants that can live on barely any water. My water dept has a plant list that shows everything that can grow in the area on little water. My community allows only drought tolerant plants off that list. We are all green trees and bushes on very low consumption. :) This plant search has some ideas and check out the landscape awards gallery.  

 

I would not go with crushed granite or lava rock. That's the one that is usually red, crumbles and gets everywhere. Make sure you put down a weed barrier before laying any gravel. And you'll need a blower to blow out any leaves or debris. Also roaches and other insects love to nest in there  :ack2:  so make sure it gets sprayed regularly. 

 

With landscape granite, do you have anything underneath it? Is it easy to walk or play on?

[crazyforlatin]

It has a weedblocker underneath. It's not for playing or walking on with barefeet. If I wanted to do that, I would put down artificial grass which I have in the back. The kids play on the fake grass. It gets hot in the summer, so they have to wear shoes or hose it down. I have to rake the leaves off of it and every once in awhile I shopvac it to get all the small debris out of it to make it look like new. It's still green after 10 years in the desert sun.

Fake grass was an option until I looked at a video of how to install it. It's a lot of work! Don't think DH would agree to it.

 

For now, I'm going with a DG pathway and pea gravel for the rest of it. I think pea gravel will be easier for me to plant.

 

Our town does not allow gas powered leaf blowers so there are landscapers who refuse to do work here. It's probably going to be a hassle raking leaves on pea gravel ground.

[Laura Corin]

Be aware that weeds will grow in gravel, even if there's a weed block below. Seeds will blow in and manage to find a foothold.