Bark Mulch vs Gravel (Decorative Stone)

if you go for bark, you have to supress the weeds underneath it. i clearly didn't do this right and the wind has lifted the fabric and the bark decomposes and needs replacing yearly. cheaper initially though.

I also have a gravel drive. If the ground is properly prepared first (compacted etc), this lasts a lot longer before you have to top up. and if it's not being driven on all the time, you probably won't need to at all. i just weed it every year.

Gravel it.

We've got bark and stone chippings in our garden. Bark chippings are fairly cheap but they do seem to be a magnet for foxes, blackbirds and cats. Frequently have to sweep up scattered bark from the path. Additionally, as people have said, you will need to replace as they break down. If you're going to be walking on the area a lot this will help it break down.

We had an existing poured concrete patio at the end of our garden which we cleared, built a frame with wood and those log border rolls, levelled with sand, covered with weed control sheets and then gravelled. We bought from a local supplier who just dropped off a ton of gravel the next day. Cost us £50. Ok, it's not premium stuff but it does the job and we managed to do the back of the garden for less than £150. If you buy your gravel from a DIY place in those little bags it'll cost a fortune. Try contacting a local building/stone suplier and see how much it would be.

My 2 tips (from experience): 1) make sure you fill to a good level. We didn't at first and ended up with sparse patches. 2) Make sure your underlay stuff is fairly secure. It's tedious when edges come up and you need to sweep out the gravel from under it and then flatten it all down again.

I have both, bark under the kids trampoline and gravel elsewhere, we have to top up the bark every year and the birds love it no matter how much I brush it back under the trampoline and into the flower borders the minute my back it turned the birds are back pulling it onto the lawn. The kids use the gravel to throw at the pigeons to keep them out of the garden which if fine by me as I hate pigeons!!!

I converted front and rear gardens to slate. Pebbles or pea gravel no good as you can't walk on it. We bought 2" Green slate chippings from a company in Knutsford (£55 ton) delivered in those big bags. No weeds in 2 years (with that black weed cloth underneath), looks good and with a few step stones in for decorative effect. We even park our car at the front and it stays in place.

I've tried both. Bark just blows away and spreads all over the place. Gravel works but choose the 20mm gravel not the small stuff because it gets stuck in your shoes and scratches your floors. Just by regular gravel not the fancy stuff. It's cheapest to get it direct in as big a load as you can. Even a 1 tonne dumpy bag is fairly cheap. Ask a local groundworker who to go to. Where we are there are two transport companies who sell the stuff as a sideline. They supply all the builders merchants in the area.
Learn from my mistake. The gravel should be shallow, say 40mm.
Dig off the soft stuff down to a firm subsoil. Lay your geotechnical membrane and bring the base hardcore (2inch to dust) up to 40mm below the finish level and whack it down in layers no more than 100mm. Whacking consolidates and reduces the chances of it subsiding into dips later.
Spread the gravel on top. If it's too deep it's hard to walk on and to push things like a barrow. If it's shallow it tends to stay where you put it.