re: First time poster: Rock Yard DYI help requested

It is a BITCH to maintain compared to grass. I know that is counterintuitive BUT weeds are going to drive you insane. RoundUp only kills them...they still look like hell, especially in a lawn. The only way to maintain them is to pull weeds. Landscaping fabric helps for a while but only for a couple of years. I had about 1000 square feet in our yard in New Mexico and Washington and I could get by with cutting grass a couple of times a month but I was pulling weeds in those damned rocks weekly and it always looked like it needed some attention. I have a bank in our yard now thats 8 feet high sloping down to nothing over 150 feet. Its about 70 degrees most of that distance. I have class 2 granite rip rap (about a foot in "diameter" on average) and a double layer of landscape fabric under it. The soil beneath the landscape fabric is comprised almost entirely of shale. There is almost no top soil or other organic material under the landscape fabric. The problem is that dust settles between the rocks, weed seeds blow in the wind and they need nearly no soil to germinate and flourish. I spend an inordinate amount of time and energy fricking with those weeds and they almost always look like crap. Fire will get them but it still looks bad. I'd think about it and talk to other people...maintaining a rock bed in good shape is a LOT of work. If leaves or pinestraw falls in them you can also plan on replacing them at least once a year. You won't have to buy them but blow the leaves or rake them and you are going to relocate every damn piece of gravel. And introduce the perfect environment for invasive weeds in the process.