Help! No clue what to do with empty over grown flowerbed

[eamckinley]

Hi ya'll,

We had a flower bed seperating the yard from the pool with schrubs...which we hated and had removed....boy were we stupid!

We then pulled all the weeds and put down mulch which lasted briefly as the landscapers blew it in the pool after mowing...LOL.

In the middle there is also an iron fence to keep the kids out. My question is what can we put in there to keep the grass and weeds from growing that is extremly low maintenance as we now have renters in there. I was thinking rocks or something...if that is best do I dig out the dirt and then fill?

[Kisal]

I would go with rock, myself, although you will probably get additional suggestions. Depending on how much work you're willing to do, or how much you're willing to spend, you could lay cement or brick pavers in the area, too. That might be better, depending on whether there could be any damage done to the pool if someone kicked a bunch of the rock into it. I've never owned a pool, so know nothing about the maintenance and upkeep involved.

ETA: I would dig out some of the soil, fill it about halfway with sand, then cover it with landscape fabric or plastic and top it off with a few inches of rock. (But before I did that, I would talk to the people I was going to buy the rock from and learn how wrong my method might be!)

[cklandscapingorlando]

Rock is great but theres a few things you should keep in mind.Kids,weedeaters,and edgers all throw rocks.If your renting then you may keep the kids part in mind and if your lawn guys are'nt good enough to spray round up or what not then keep the rest in mind.If you put down weed mat, which you should with rocks to keep the soil down,then spend the money on the thickest one you can find.The ones at the big box stores are,nt that good.Go through a nursery supply to buy things like that.If It was me I would plant some thing like boxwood or sweet viburnum both grow slow and keep there shape between trimings.Pordacarpus or maybe some fountain grass like one of the penn. variety's thats red.African iris, flax lily,agapanthus are a few more choices that are up right growing and create clumps that are perfect for low borders with little maintanance.Fill it in with a 3-4in. layer of mulch or rubber mulch.Also do what we call cutting in the edge.If your doing 3in. of mulch then dig the whole per. down 3in. to hold in the mulch.Tell your lawn guy to blow the debree into the beds or use a mulch kit or even mow in the opposite direction to decress the problem.