A home is more than just the house itself; a fine property will also have a front and back yard, and this land needs to be taken care of. For practical and aesthetic reasons alike, any homeowner should keep their front and back lawns in good repair, and there are all sorts of landscaping products that they can use. Local retailers and online catalogs can be browsed to find the right materials for this work. Drainage gravel, construction sand, crushed gravel, and more can be used to keep a lawn safe and healthy from erosion, flooding, and more. A customer can get gravel in large quantities if they contact gravel delivery services, and a person can look them up online. A customer may find crews who provide and place gravel on a property, and online searches such as “crushed gravel Seattle” to find local businesses for that. The question is: when to use drainage gravel? Or when is it time to have bark dust put down? Someone who wonders “when to use drainage gravel?” may be someone new to home ownership. They may find out soon enough, and the answers to “when to use drainage gravel?” may become clear.
When to Use Drainage Gravel
As the name suggests, drainage gravel is used to help make the draining of water easier, such as during heavy rain. Rain is good for plants such as trees or the grass, but poor water management can lead to problems. If rain water cannot drain properly, then this may result in flooding and pools of standing water. This water, at best, looks bad on the property, and at worst it may also drown plants or turn soil into mud and possibly flood the basement. When to use drainage gravel? When water control becomes an issue.
This drainage gravel can be placed on a homeowner’s front or back yard, or even the sides, to help make rain drainage easier and prevent flooding. Landscaping can be done either alone or with professional help, but it should be noted that the companies who provide landscaping materials, and actual landscapers, may be different. A homeowner may buy gravel if they can do the landscaping work alone, or they may hire local landscaper crews who can get this work done.
Either way, gravel can be put down and used as drainage near the driveway, along flower garden borders, or anywhere else. The landscaper will dig away soil in strategic locations, then place the gravel there in place of topsoil. In many types of terrain, topsoil is about two to eight inches deep, and that makes it fairly easy to dig up and replace with gravel. When this is done, water can drain easily through that gravel and deeper into the ground, much more easily than if the original topsoil were in place. Some soil absorbs water slowly or may already be logged with water, and this causes excess water to pool on the surface. This is to be avoided.
Other Landscaping
Gravel is a fine candidate for draining away water during rain, but it can be used for other work, too. Some Americans choose to have gravel driveways, and these driveways can last a long time with proper care. A fine gravel driveway may last for three to five years at least, and if taken care of, it may last for a full decade. In other cases, gravel may be used to surround trees or be placed in gardens, right on top of the soil. Why? A layer of gravel may be more interesting to look at than dirt or thin grass patches, and it can also act as weed control. It only takes a layer of gravel one inch thick to contain weed growth, and this can be a real relief for some homeowners.
Bark dust is another soil-protection option. Bark dust is the cork-like bark from trees, and landscaping companies (distinct from landscaper material suppliers) can be hired to apply a generous layer of bark dust anywhere on a property that the homeowner wants. Bark dust can look nice, and it can also help prevent weed growth just like gravel does. Bark dust layers can also help trap moisture in the soil and prevent erosion.