Stone for mulch in flowerbed?

[harryhh]

Hello folks,

I live in an apartment building and I'm not a gardener. But, I was thinking of putting in a 2 foot wide flowerbed running along the front of the 2 building so that some perennials can be put in, and tenets can plant flowers. The apartment building owners will pay for the materials that I use.

One building faces east and the flowerbed will get sun til around noon. The other building faces north and the flowerbed won't get much direct sun.

Is it feasible to use stone as the mulch in a flowerbed. I was thinking of pea stone.

I've read that there should be only 2 inches of pea stone or the perennials might not come up.
I've read that there needs to be 4 inches to stop the weeds.
I've read that the stone easily collects a lot of debris. We have leaves, pine needles and cones.
Can people plant annuals in 2 to 4 inches of stone and expect them to grow?

Any other thoughts? Some other stone, preferably on the less expensive side? I suppose I haven't thought of even half of the questions I should ask about stone for mulch.

Thanks,
Harry

[tomc]

I might lay my stone on top of garden fabric. To reduce weeds. you are going to have to clean up every third year or so; IE sift out weeds and soil and relay stone.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't really know why you would want to do stone. Bark mulch is easier and cheaper and breaks down to feed the soil. Doesn't heat up like rocks do in the sun. Easier to plant in. The bark mulch will have to be renewed annually, but it is way easier to do. I think it looks better too, more natural.

[harryhh]

Hello tomc,

I was reading a few hours ago that enough debris gets into the rock that in 3 to 5 years it creates it's own soil, and weeds can take over. I have used a large wet/dry vac with a modified attachment to clean river rock before, and it wasn't too hard. I just realized I can't do that with pea stone. It would all be sucked up.

No one is going to be shoveling up the stone and sifting and cleaning it, so I guess the stone is out.


Hello rainbowgardener,

I didn't want to be adding mulch each year, and wanted to avoid some of the other problems I've read about with wood type mulch. Infestations, washing away, blowing away, not staying in place very well.

Rubber mulch seemed too expensive, and I now realize it would probably have the same problem of gathering debris as stone mulch has.

I guess I will just go with an inexpensive wood mulch for now. I'll try to learn more about mulch and perhaps ask more questions.

We have perennials growing in some places already. So, I guess I can do the edging and about 2/3 of the flowerbed work now, then wait until fall when the flowers and bulbs go dormant to finish the job.

Thanks folks,
Harry

[imafan26]

You can use medium or fine bark for mulch but every year after that you can just use compost on top. Even if you plant perennials there is still going to be some maintenance like watering fertilizing cutting back and dividing. You need to look for plants that don't mind dust, street traffic, or reflected heat from the pavement.

Just because you are choosing perennials or any plant for that matter doesn't mean it is once and done. You are not alone, a lot of people forget that living things grow, need food and water, need cleaning up and eventually will die.

Instead of a flower bed, consider a flowering ground cover. There are many that do we will in street gside locations especially near parking strips because there will always be people who will walk through the garden bed instead of around it. There will still be some weeding but a solid ground cover won't have much bare soil for weeds to grow through or soil to wash on to the pavement. You can plant some shrubs in the ground cover, but you will need to do some kind of edging or barrier and keep the ground cover trimmed or it will climb up the shrubs and spill over into the pavement. You will still need to water and fertilize and every few years, renew the soil and plantings.

[harryhh]

Hello imafan26,

You kind of hit the nail on the head. I'm a 61 year old male with no interest in flowers, or becoming a gardener. I wouldn't mind a little work in a flowerbed in the spring, midsummer, and fall. But, if I do a little flower work I immediately become 'the gardener' here in the apartment building and am plied with questions about plants and hints could I do this or that flower work.

There are only 8 apartments. Mostly elderly ladies. This all comes about because some apartment tenets comment that it is too drab outside, and, making a flowerbed for them will give me something to do. And it would be nice if the ladies were a little happier with the outside.

I've already planned on having to do a little watering during dry spells, weeding a couple of times a year, fertilizing once or twice, cutting back, and dividing in the fall. I really don't want to have to learn about plants though.

I'm a little leery of spending a good bit of the apartment buildings money on a flowerbed, and then it not being properly cared for. As I write this, I'm realizing that the flowerbed could be much less costly than I was planing, and probably still be suitable. If things work out it could be upgraded with little loss of money from the initial materials needed.

In 60 percent of the area of the planned flowerbed, grass and even weeds seem to have a hard time growing. Probably because of lack of sun in front of one building, and lack of water in front of the other. So, maybe no mulch, and as you say, a nice ground cover. One building has a little moss growing in front. I've seen some mosses that looked really nice.

Thank you,
Harry

[Flowers]

Harry, if I may add my opinion, I wouldn't recommend getting into gardening if you aren't willing to research a plant's needs, unless you are willing to research which plants are easy to care for. Some flowers, roses for example, are quite a challenge to care for and will probably take some research as well as some cost.

That said, you can find some lovely plants and flowers that are native to your area that require very little care, more along the lines of what you're thinking of (watering during dry spells, weeding a couple times a year, and some slight maintenance), but you will have to research what kinds of plants will do well like this. Maybe some of the more knowledgeable members of the forum here can even tell you some of the species specifically well-suited to your area.

My first thought after reading these posts was that you're going to have a bunch of elderly ladies knocking on your door asking why on earth their roses are dying, when no one is very willing to water a couple times a week and follow a proper fungicide/pesticide regimen, which is what roses seem to need (or a similar scenario)

Gardening is a bit of a part time job for me (but I love it, so not quite a job). Don't let me dissuade you from what sounds like an excellent project! I'm just thinking it would be best for you to plan on a little research into which plants will best suit your plans rather than letting your neighbours plant whatever they'd like, leaving a mountain of maintenance to you.
Best of luck!

[harryhh]

Hello Flowers,

I myself am hoping that I'm not getting into more than I want. My intention is to plant some flowers to spruce things up around here. But, for the most part, leave it to the individual residents or their family members.

The apartment building is willing to spend some money each year on upkeep of the flowerbed(s).

I had spent a few hours researching lilies and they seemed to fit the bill just right. Very hardy, needing very little care, and they don't spread very fast. When the time comes, perhaps I can get some suggestions from members on flowers that I can research. One's that are almost as easy as lilies. That amount of research would be fine. I just don't want to be researching every flower to find the one's suitable.

The ground cover plants might prove to be the difficult part of this. Each apartment has it's own door to the outside that opens to it's own little concrete porch. In between the porches are about 10 grassy/dirt areas where the flowerbeds will go. Seems to me it would be nice if each separate flowerbed had it's own different ground cover.

Thanks,
Harry