When it comes to investing money in making your home’s yard look good, it helps to understand the benefits of certain landscaping materials. You don’t want to spend hundreds or thousands on something like decorative stone when mulch would work just as well and provide a better return on your investment. But it all depends on your budget and the type of landscape design you’re going for. This article walks you through four unexpected landscaping materials that help your yard look its best year-round and save money on maintenance costs.
Red Lava Rock
With red lava rocks, you get an easy way to add bold color to your landscaping. It’s very common to see this material in flower beds and around trees and shrubs.
Beyond its luxury visual appeal, red lava rock is very porous, meaning it delivers excellent drainage to your plants. This benefit alone makes it highly beneficial for areas of the yard that struggle with water pooling and soil erosion.
Plus, lava rock is well known for its insulating properties and ability to help regulate the temperature of the soil, so it supports healthier growth for plants. You won’t have to worry about replacing this material for several decades, making its maintenance requirements incredibly minimal.
Crushed Concrete
When the goal is to make your yard look more modern, you can’t go wrong with crushed concrete. It’s a sustainable choice that comes from recycled concrete, making it very eco-friendly. It works perfectly as a base for driveways as well as your sidewalks.
Just imagine what your backyard would look like with a crushed concrete pathway running from your back door to the patio, where you can easily get back and forth without ever having to step in the yard. This is what crushed concrete can help create, and it’s another landscaping material that comes with minimal maintenance.
Stones
You can take your pick of the litter if you want to use stones for water features or along garden beds. Pea gravel is frequently used for its small size and smooth texture. You’ll often see it placed along walkways, around flower beds or even inside decorative fountains.
Slate chips also provide a very upscale appearance. Landscaping designers will sometimes use them in garden areas to help with drainage and weed control.
Here are some other types of stones you can use for landscaping:
- River rock
- Crushed granite
- Flagstone
- Fieldstone
- Cobblestone
- Mexican beach pebbles
- Decomposed granite
- Quartzite
Mulch
When used correctly, mulch is one of the most cost-effective landscaping materials that can have the biggest impact on your yard. Organic versions do more than just add nutrients to the soil during their decomposition process; they also give the landscaping better texture and fertility, so the roots of plants and shrubs are stronger and healthier.
Just adding a single layer of fresh mulch to your plant beds will have them looking much more well-maintained. But as you’re adding the mulch, you must be careful with the depth of the application so you don’t accidentally smother plant roots.
The easiest way to keep your yard looking great is to hire a landscaping specialist. They’ll explain the different material options and do an assessment of your yard, including its soil conditions and water flow patterns, to see which types will work best. Many lawns have a mixture of mulch, decorative stone and pea gravel for aesthetic and drainage purposes. If you live in Warner Robins, GA or a surrounding area and need landscape installation services, make your first call to Safe Site Services.
