All ground areas in landscaping need to be covered with something.  The most common things are drives and walks, grass, and then there’s STONE (a.k.a. aggregate), or MULCH which are commonly used in planting bed areas and areas against the buildings.  Landscaping inevitably requires that certain areas be covered with either mulch or rock/stone/aggregate. 

If you leave it as just bare dirt, the soil will dry out quickly and weeds will invade very rapidly.  Besides, raw soil just doesn’t look as ‘finished’ as stone or mulch.  

Stone can be purchased in many varieties of looks.  There are many colors, sizes and shapes available.  The stone in this picture is being used under the dripline of the roof.  It is a tan color.  Stone which is somewhere between ¾” diameter and 1 ½” diameter are commonly used in drip edge areas.  Fabric or plastic is commonly placed under stone to prevent weeds.  The reason stone is used at a drip edge instead of mulch is that mulch would just get blasted out of place by rain off of the roof creating a trench and mud-splatter on the building.  Stone prevents that.  

If there is no mulch bed (such as is seen in this photo) to the outside of the drip edge stone, then be sure to put a barrier between the stone and any grass because lawn mowers will catch the stones and throw them if there isn’t a divider such as granite cobblestone edgers.  

We tend to NOT use any weed fabric under mulch.  Fabric will definitely keep things looking nice for a couple of years, but eventually the mulch decomposes, and as it decomposes it creates a soil on top of the fabric.  In this soil, weed seeds will germinate.  Then when you pull up weeds, the roots will be into the fabric, and up comes the fabric along with the weed making a great big mess.  Just be sure to keep the mulch layer around 3”-4” thick.  

Choose your type and color of stone as well as your type and color of mulch.  These are essential components to any landscaping.