River Rock Vs Mulch

The rock can help slow down water from eroding parts of the landscape.

River rock vs mulch.

Read on to learn the pros and cons of mulching with an organic mulch or an inorganic mulch like rocks. But remember it doesn t break down and disappear into the soil like bark mulch does. Harder to spring clean up beds. If sustainability is your top concern consider using river rock on your property.

Therefore it ends up a much cheaper option in the long run. My step brother and i put in the landscaping with rocks instead of mulch last fall and it s been working well for us. Unlike mulch you never have to replace river rock. I knew from experience in our past house that flower bed rocks would keep stay much better than mulch so we decided to go for it.

One of the changes we made was to replace all the mulch around the patio with river rocks and possibly all the flower beds with rocks instead of mulch. The cost of mulch versus river rock is significant river rock being up to 3x more expensive than mulch. Mulch also gets displaced easily by heavy rain and it isn t good on steep slopes. But while the upfront cost difference is apparent it s important to remember that even though mulch is much more affordable initially it will need to be freshened up regularly meaning you ll invest just as much over a few years.

Benefits of rock mulch. It sells for about 4 to 5 per bag at a big box store but keep in mind that bags of rock mulch only contain about 0 5 cubic feet of material four times less than a bag of wood mulch. Long lasting never needs replaced. Mulch is the cheapest of the three material options.

You don t need to replace it every year. Rock mulch is more expensive than wood mulch. Lower cost over time rock mulch is a one time expense. Lesser prevention of weed germination.

Mulch can nearly double how fast trees and plants grow according to this study. The price of rock mulch varies depending on the type and size but generally costs two to three times more than an application of mulch. Any type of decorative gravel can be used as groundcover including lava rock quartz granite pea gravel and river rock. Mulch which is better in flower beds and around trees.

River rock is considerably more expensive than organic mulches such as shredded bark wood chips or compost. Once it is positioned and placed it s perfectly situated for all of time. This landscaping gravel can be anywhere from the size of a pea up to golf ball size. Since there is no replacement requirement river rock might cost more upfront but will not come with reoccurring annual costs.

I had seen some river rock flower beds online and thought they looked nice. At about three to six times the cost of organic mulches such as cypress pine bark or. Rock is more expensive than bark mulch. It s the most sustainable of the three and is not likely not to be displaced by rain.

Not ideal for really wet areas.