Mulch or Rock?

I will hopefully be getting more rock to finish my waterfall this weekend. After that is done I really want to get the area around it landscaped. I was wondering if I should use gravel or small rock or if wood mulch be better? What have some of you used and why do you like it or don't like it? I would eventually like to put in a flagstone patio down too.

I will have to get rid of a lot of grass, is it necessary to cut it all out or can I just lay down heavy duty landscape fabric or left over liner, pin it down and cover it? I also will need some edging that we can easily mow over. My husband doesn't like using the weed wacker and I can barely lift the thing. Thanks for any ideas!

I insisted on mulch and my pond designer was strongly against it because it gets into the pond and can have chemicals on it that can hurt/kill fish, can clog or break the pump and is just messier. Well, he was right because it did clog and break a 1 week old pump . . . It does get washed into the pond when it rains. I didn't opt for the small stones and gravel because I felt my kids would be throwing it around and at my house and break windows. My kids are young and while I know I could get them to obey me it is their friends who visit that would have more issues. I wish I only did rocks now and just banned little kids who don't know how to listen!!!! LOL! When my mulch breaks down I will replace it with larger boulders and stones.

I put down thick layers of newspaper and then put pea rock about 4inches thick and then put my stepping stones and bigger stones for looks. Must clean it up a bit and take some pics. BEV

Rocks! I did pretty much what dargonfly62 did, except that in place of newspapers I used weed mat. I dug out the area 6 inches deep, layed down weed mat, then crushed stone and then laid flagstone. . The weed mat doesn't break down and prevents weeds from growing up through, plus it keeps the crushed stone base from disappearing ino the soil.

mothermole I did the same thing you did with bark mulch - not right up against the pond but in adjacent flower beds. It blew right into the pond. What a mess. There is one type of mulch that is relatively stable in the wind - Gorilla Hair - . It is the cambium stripped from the trunk and shredded (redwood). It doesn't blow around. But the stuff is UGLY! It is also recommended for use on slopes where rain would erode other mulches down slope. You'll recognise it right away in the garden centers. It looks like orange, stringy, very coarse, tangled hair.

This message was edited Jul 3, 2008 6:56 PM

Mine doesn't blow into the pond but occasionally washes into the pond in heavy rain or gets knocked into the pond by kids, dogs and "gardening Mole" (that is me). I am opting for some huge pieces of outcropping so I can use it like a elevated pier of stone with smaller rocks around it.

A rock outcropping sounds gorgeous. I really regret the pine bark chips that I used in a flower bed by the pond. The small bits caught in the wind and caused an awful mess in the pond. My pond is now entirely surrounded with layered flagstone. Much cleaner and easy to maintain. In two weeks I'm taking out a small narrow planting bed just to the side of the waterfall and putting in a raised rock garden with dwarf conifers. Even though it's been 7 years things still change.

When I first built my pond last year I didn't rinse my big rocks that I used for the waterfall and surrounding area. The pond turned a mucky brown when it rained - it was awful. I put small rocks in all the cracks in the rocks - dah--I turned it brown again with the rock dust during a rain. (Ya think I would have learned.) But no - I had put red mulch down - some got in pond - reddish water. My fish didn't do very well.

I totally redid my pond and with lessons learned it has been beautiful this year. All my koi are surviving very well. I learned my lessons the hard way.

My first three years were spent learning the hard way. It got easier after that, thank heaven. Now I'm learning that keeping small koi is different from keeping large koi. Large koi are like a bunch of rowdy teenagers. They pretty much trash anything they want to investigate and they investigate everything. Plants in tubs have to be bomb proofed. No more water hyancinth or water lettuce or parrot feather which I loved. The make salad out of it in just a few hours. Besides lilies in tubs with protective covers I can manage some anacharis. Whoopee!

Some of the gang.

I love your gang Snapple! I've even noticed that my bigger small koi even enjoy chewing up the plants. Especially the lillies and water lettuce. They definately love exploring everything with their mouths.

I'm hoping to build another pond next year just for the koi and having my plants and goldfish seperate in my current pond. I had no idea how much I would love koi, but there is something special about them:)

Well, I guess I will be doing rock and gravel then. With our winds there is no way I can get away with mulch. I really want to do flagstone too and make a little seating area and path way. Would like a fence or something to hide my plumbing too.

I tore my rotary cuff it seems, so big stuff might be out this year. We will have to see how bad it is once I start physical therapy. I WILL finish my waterfall though, I can't stand not having that done.

Ah evesta, you've got the koi bug. Relax and enjoy it. I does not go away. As to the torn rotator cuff take care with the physical therapy. Better to leave a few things undone than to risk furthur injury until the physical therapy can do its job. My DH had to have his surgically repaird last June. He is 99.9% now, but it was not easy or fun.

Snapple-love, love, LOVE your fish! That big yellow butterfly is my favorite but they're all gorgeous! How old are they and their approx. length and how long have you owned them? I can't wait to get my new fish!

The smallest (9") are new additions this year. Two are seven years old, some 5-6 and a couple are 4 years old. They range in size from 9" to over 24". Oddly, the biggest is not the oldest. The yellow butterfly is six years old, maybe not the longest but the girth is huge. I bought him and his brother from a pet store in the late fall one year when it was too cold to put them in the pond. They spent the winter in the house in an aquarium. They were 4" when I got them. They nearly doubled by the following spring. The koi I have don't all grow at the same rate. Some that I have had for a shorter period of time are actually larger than others. One, an almost all black one with just a few orange bits ( pet store purchase) while fat is still very small for its age. Ya' never know.

They are almost family. Every morning first thing with coffee cup in hand I'm out there counting noses. Losing one is real tough. And I have lost some. There are absolutely no koi vets here for diagnosis or assistance. Getting medication from a vet, which I have done ( injections mind you ) was a trying experience. I practically had to beg and take copied pages from a koi health book written by a DVM to convince the vet to let me have what I needed. I still have the fish. The fish survived but I wasn't sure I would.

You'll get there mothermole. You've already learned twice what I did in the first year.

This message was edited Jul 4, 2008 2:08 PM