Bark, pebbles or slate

davidspd

Hi,

We're just in the process of sorting out our front garden and was wondering if anyone knows the pros and cons of the above.

The area is south facing but is shaded by two very large tress (which are protected), so is very mossy at the moment. As we don't really use it we thought we'd take up the grass/moss and put one of the above down. We're not going to be walking or parking on it. Was originally thinking of going for bark as it gets a lot of leaf drop from the trees, but have heard it's a cat s**t magnet, but I can't imagine its easy raking leaves off pebbles/slate.

Looking for any experience or advice.

Thanks.

Dan-Dan

Dont use bark , it will get manky , under those conditions , pretty quickly

Personally , we have slate and use a leaf blower

katipip

I agree that bark would be a mistake - the moss currently growing on your grass will just regrow on the bark.

Slate looks nice but, in a large area can be a bit bland.

My choice would be pebbles - that way you get a range of colours to keep the area looking nice.

themull1

Large gravel. Never bark. unless you're a dog.

davidspd

Thanks for the replies, couple more questions now ...

What counts as "large" gravel, and is a leaf blower powerful enough to clear wet soggy leaves?

JP08

A bit lateral from what you are trying to do, but how about going with the flow and encouraging the moss - after all it works well there, whereas slates / stone / bark are likely to be a pain to get the leaves out of and probably will end up mossy anyhow.

Something like this : http://www.mossandstonegardens.com/blog/how-to-grow-moss/