Wanting to put rock down in these two spots. The long narrow strip by sidewalk will be solid rock. The other area my wife wants a rock border of about 1ft and then fill in the middle with mulch. My question is about landscaping fabric will it be a mistake to put that down under the rock? Seeing a lot of people say it's a major hassle down the road.

Also, the area currently drains fine, should I dig down 4" or so and add the rock or will that lead to drainage issues? Plan on using some type of 2-4" river rock.

Staff can remove one, post said failed to post but ended up double posting.

Main reason I've heard to use fabric is to prevent rocks from sinking into the soil. I'm experiencing that a bit now and may take out all the rock to lay down fabric (I didn't see the advice until after…).

Many say don't bother putting it under mulch though. May suppress weeds for a bit, but they eventually just take root on top of it. Adding enough mulch (and adding more over time as it breaks down), plus having enough plants can help with weed management. It also sucks having to cut through or clean up fabric when doing new plantings.

Yes that's what I've seen as well. A coworker said the mesh is fine but still grows weeds on top of the mulch he put on it. He uses his hands to move mulch around if they are planting something else where for rocks I can see wanting to grab a shovel and ripping the mesh easily. Guess one just has to be careful.

i did something similar in an area around my pool equipment where i couldn't grow anything due to shade. i used the fabric and put down a few inches of river rock on top of it. i still get some weeds, but they are easy to pull up and/or spray with roundup. i think without the fabric, the rocks 100% would have sunk into the soil and weeds would be far worse.

Thanks, yeah I'm hoping to have 3-4" of rock and will most likely have extra but don't want to lose 2" in the dirt.

I put the rock on top of 6 mil thick black plastic sheeting. No weeds. It is in areas about 18" wide between the slab perimeter and flower beds.

Weed barrier doesn't barrier for long. I had some legit commercial nuclear warfare resistant stuff. It worked for a bit, but eventually weeds would get through and the root ball would still be under the fabric. It eventually renders itself useless and then you can't get it out anyway. I would get rock....and more rock if needed and then soak with RM43 as needed.

You for sure want to put down cloth under the gravel. We call it soil separator. It does just that keeps the rock from pushing into the soil. Weeds will still grown from seed blown in on top. We use a woven product called pro 5. Your local big box stores have a thinner product so might double it up. You want to remove a few inched of soil but not create a hole to hold standing water.

Appreciate the advice! Thanks!