Repel Pests From Your Home And Yard With Gravel Landscaping

Maintaining a beautiful and flourishing outdoor space can take a ton of work. Routine maintenance like watering, fertilizing, and pruning already takes up quite a bit of time, but when you're stuck dealing with unwanted visitors, keeping your garden free from damage and infestations can start to feel like a full time job. Luckily, there's one simple addition that can help you banish the worst garden pests from your yard. Installing gravel, even just as a decorative border around your plants, can help to create a barrier that deters both crawling insects and rodents.

The notion of incorporating gravel into your yard might not sound like a great idea if you're looking to create a space where you can comfortably relax or your kids can play, but it can be an incredibly useful tool to help protect the rest of your green space and decrease the amount of work you have to put in to maintain your yard. As an added bonus, there are plenty of different types of gravel to consider, the materials for this project are fairly low-cost, and there isn't any complex installation that could require specialized tools or hired labor.

While it might be tempting to fill your garden to the brim with lush plants, this is unfortunately also the ideal outdoor space for a lot of pests. As a general rule, both bugs and animals seek out shelter in plants that are grouped close together or planted close to your house. If you're looking to make sure unwanted visitors don't hang around, it's necessary to create some division in your space, and gravel is a good option for this. Rodents like squirrels and voles don't like traveling across open spaces as it leaves them vulnerable to predators, so gravel can present an obstacle that keeps them from exploring deeper into your yard or garden.

Conveniently, gravel is also helpful if you're looking for an eco-friendly way to keep bugs out of your garden. Insect pests like roaches and ants won't stick around gravel because it lacks food resources. While they might still pass through on their way to another location, you shouldn't have to deal with nearly as many pests setting up shop in your space. Replacing your wood mulch with gravel is especially helpful for deterring American cockroaches, which are drawn to moisture and feed and nest in decaying plant matter.

Incorporating gravel into your yard doesn't mean that you have to uproot all of your favorite bushes and shrubs. Just add some gravel paths throughout the space to act as barriers, especially between garden beds. For all-around protection that still leaves you with plenty of green space, install a gravel strip around the perimeter of your yard. When installed at about 2 inches deep, smaller gravel stones such as pea gravel are most effective at deterring insect pests. While gravel path or strip doesn't look like much of a blockade from a person's perspective, the uneven surface can be enough to send bugs and rodents off in a different direction, hopefully to never return.

Beyond offering some low maintenance pest control, incorporating gravel can help to make your whole lawn care routine a bit simpler. Grass needs, on average, 1 to 2 inches of water a week, which translates to about 125 gallons per 1,000 square feet on a sunny day. By cutting down the square footage of your green space with some gravel, you can also cut down your water bill. Less moisture from watering will also make your lawn less attractive to mosquitoes, slugs, and other annoying pests. Gravel can also be a fantastic addition in high-traffic areas, spots near tree roots, and other spaces where you're constantly fighting off bald spots in your lawn. By turning these areas into gravel paths, you'll be able to protect your space from pests and keep it looking pristine without much work.