Landscaping projects that use red barn rock. Add a garden path, create a weed or water barrier, and more with this landscaping rock that can be purchased in bulk.
I ordered a lot of red barn rock, quite accidentally miscalculating how much rock I would need for our garden path and rain garden. I ordered three tons of loose stone, only used about 1.5 tons for the path, and the rest was laying in my driveway. I should mention our local supplier charged $277 for the rock, including the delivery cost.
Thanks to this gross miscalculation, I needed to get rid of the rock quickly and so I found quite a few projects to complete with it. I wanted to share with you what those projects are, in case you end up in a similar situation.
Ps. I love the look of this rock, but I recommend laying down a large tarp underneath it because it’s stained our driveway.
Create a Garden Path and Rain Garden with Red Barn Rock
This is how I used the loose stone…
This garden path extends along my driveway, all the way to our backyard. We wanted the loose stone so that it would assist with drainage. Our neighbor’s sump pump pipe is supposed to lead to the street and drainage area, but instead it is broken and drains into our yard. Our grass path got worn and muddy, but the grass where the water ran down made the grass flourish. I put mulch and a garden area, as well some hardy plants that work for rain gardens, and then lined the area that gets muddy with the rock. Perfect solution. We added stones for a barrier to the path to keep the mulch from running into the path.
Oh- and our builder installed TWO sump pumps because of all the water draining into our yard… hoping the rain garden will give the sump pump a bit of help and reduce the amount of water going into our foundation area.
A few notes about this path. We laid down a weed barrier underneath, but we still get some weeds throughout the summer months. We use weed killer sparingly, but it’s often a source of frustration for us to pick the weeds out of the path because the weeds get ‘stuck’ in the weed barrier.
The path is pretty sharp with all of these rocks so it’s hard to walk on barefoot. This shouldn’t be an issue because we normally wear shoes, but we tend to be a barefoot family so sometimes I regret our rock choice.
The rock has, however, stayed in place pretty well and the drainage has been great. No more issues with drainage in that area.
Create a 1′ waterproof barrier around the house with red barn rock.
This barrier will hopefully keep grass from growing too close to the house, keep the mulch away from the house so the ants don’t have a place to nest near foundation, and keep water from draining into the foundation area. I’m hoping it’ll cut down on how hard our sump pumps work.
Create a grass-proof barrier in hard to mow areas with landscaping rock.
Video tour of the areas we used red barn rock.
In case you wanted a video tour, here are the various ways I’ve used the rock.
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