Front Yard Landscaping Ideas With Rocks And Mulch

Now that it’s officially spring, tis the season for mulching right?! I know it is for us at our house at least. My hubby just got 4 pallets of rocks and mulch delivered to our house a few weeks ago. So I thought I would share with you guys our front yard landscaping ideas with rocks and mulch today.

That way, if you’re getting ready to do the same thing with your yard, you can fall back on this post for some landscape design ideas. Having fresh mulch out really creates a visual appeal to your house. It always surprises me with what a vast difference new mulch can make.

Plus, I think it really pops against our white house. And having a well landscaped and manicured lawn will also definitely increase the property value to your home.

While it is a lot of work, it’s definitely worth it in the end! Your home’s curb appeal will definitely take off after adding in some fresh mulch and rocks! So come along with me and see just how we did our front yard’s landscaping this year!

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How Often Should I Mulch The Yard?

Before we get started, you may be wondering exactly how often you should mulch your own yard. I would recommended at least every 1-2 years.

Every year is ideal, but I know things happen and sometimes it is hard to find the time! But, organic mulch can decompress and loose its effectiveness at retaining soil moisture and working as a weed barrier over a long period of time.

You can always monitor the depth of your mulch beds too. Mulch should be maintained at a depth of 2-3 inches. If it’s less than that, it’s definitely time to add more. 

What Type of Mulch Should I Use?

You may also be wondering what type of mulch is the best out there. It’s very important to consider because organic mulches decompose faster than synthetic mulches.

An organic mulch would be wood chips or shredded bark mulch whereas a synthetic mulch would be rubber or stone. For our yard, we used all natural pine bark nuggets mulch.

To decide what mulch you want to use, I recommend researching a combination of mulch options to see which one would be best for your yard.

Also, take in consideration the color of mulch too. Would red mulch or black mulch pop more against your house?

The visual interest is important to consider when choosing the different colors to use. There are a ton of possibilities and options, which is always nice to choose from.

Do I Need To Use Landscape Fabric Before Mulching?

No, you don’t need to use landscape fabric before mulching. It actually is detrimental to the plant and soil’s health. Air cannot get through it and neither can the rain.

Mulch is an effective enough weed barrier, when applied correctly, so there is no reason you also need to use landscape fabric before mulching. 

How To Mulch The Yard

Our front yard is rather large and we do have a big area of mulch to cover. Plus, we have a lot in the backyard too. Especially under our screened in porch.

So my hubby came up with a great way to speed the process along. He likes to lay the bags of mulch out, about every 3 feet from each other in the garden beds.

Then, we go around and open each bag and spread it around the area. Since the bags are already there and close together, it’s easier to spread out and doesn’t take as much time as going back and forth grabbing individual bags.

It does take more time on the front end, but it saves you time when you actually start to mulch! We also use large river rocks where our drainage system is too.

So instead of mulching over that, we do a combination of mulch and rocks near our retaining wall. We also have a lot of ornamental grasses near the retaining wall that we mulch around as well.

It’s always a good idea to add in some native plants that will thrive in your area. And these grasses definitely thrive!

They get super tall and we have to cut them back every year. But, they do look great against the new mulch I have to say! And it’s a good way to fill up some space in the mulch bed too. 

How To Use Landscaping Rocks

Like I just mentioned, we like to use a combination of both rocks and mulch in the yard. Especially when we mulch around the trees.

We usually add a pile of mulch around the trunk of the tree, and then create rock borders around that. Which is a super simple landscaping idea.

My husband also added landscape rocks all around the backyard detached garage to create a cohesive rock edging look.

In our fire pit area, which is right beside the garage, we also used large flat rocks as stepping stones, and then filled in the area with pea gravel.

You could also use whatever small rocks you wanted to as well. These rock landscaping ideas are perfect to implement in any outdoor area to your home!

For our river rock landscaping, we like to use this off white river rock which comes in 0.5 inches to 3.0 inches in size. It’s always good to have a variety of shapes and sizes when it comes to your front yard rock.

But again, you could use whatever decorative rocks you wanted to that works best in your space as well! 

Enjoy Your Freshly Mulched Front Yard! 

I hope you enjoyed all these front yard landscaping ideas with rocks and mulch. There truly is nothing better than a lush green lawn, popping against some fresh mulch in your yard!

It truly says spring has arrived, and now you can enjoy the rest of the season, sitting back and looking at how good your yard looks now!

I always enjoy sitting out in our outdoor space marveling at all the hard work that was done and how good it looks after! From big front yards to small front yards, mulch and rock make all the difference in the world!

I hope you enjoyed our front yard design, and I hope it gives you some inspiration on how you can achieve this look in your own yard too!