Is there a good reason to have rocks in a flowerbed in front of my house?

Question

When I purchased my house, I noticed that there were rocks buried beneath the flowerbed. My uncle said they could be there to help drainage, but I have never heard/read anything like this. Should I dig them out or leave them. Here's a picture: http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p294/michelle1908/DSCN0826_cropped.jpg

Answer 1

i believe that they are there to keep the dirt from irouding....my sister keeps rocks in her flower bed for that reason....if there is no chance of the rain washing all your dirt away than sure if you don't want them take them out.....but if your not sure they're not hurting anything....leave them

Answer 2

Couldn't access the picture...so.... (I'm at work and the computer guru has a really tight filter.....I guess because we aren's supposed to do this at work....hmmm...go figure... )
Any whoo.....

Usually rocks, especially the rounded, river rocks, are added to increase drainage. If the soil underneath the bed is clay, someone just took a shortcut instead of totally amending the soil like they should have. The rocks won't hurt anything, but you need to see how far down they go and what's underneath them. If, for instance, you have 4-5 inches of soil, then 3-4 inches of rocks, and then a foot or two or clay....well.....you won't be putting in very many plants that have more than an 8-10 inch root base. Of course, if you are putting in larger plants, you can just dig them out at the same time, dig a larger space than needed, mix that soil (and rocks) with amedment mixture, and the plant will establish itself and the root structure will be strong enough by the time it reaches the outer edge of your properly amended planting circle to be able to battle its way through the clay.

Now...if you dig a pit and find a foot or more of the "gravel", then you may have bumped into what is called a French Culvert. This would extend all around the walls that are submerged under the dirt line: especially if you have a basement. Sometimes, it's the only way to keep seepage from going through a basement wall. If this is the case....don't mess with it....unless you really LIKE mildew in your basement.

The third thing it could be is foundation or surplus concrete curd. I call it that because it just means the builder or previous homeowner just got really lazy in the clean up and dumped dirt on top of it to cover it up. Get rid of it. It does help with drainage, but it also has minerals in it your plants dont want, and leaches chemicals that they do need.

Hope it's just for simple drainage, and just remember....it's really rough on the ole' roto-tiller.

Happy gardening!!

Answer 3

after looking at picture, yes believe are for drainage purpose, to keep dirt from excess mudding up when get heavy rain. Soil may have poor drainage of its own, so these are very helpful and also do not take away from the look. You may even want to add more to even the beds out some for a more uniform look. I have done this in a poor draining area on 1 side of our garden too, great results.

Answer 4

Well, to be honest alot of people just use rocks as decorations, my mother has a flower bed that she has filled with rocks, it helps also to keep weeds from getting in your flowerbed and hurting your flowers. You should leave them, unless you dont like the way they look. But if you do take them out, make sure that you keep weeds and stuff away. :)

Answer 5

either drainage or foundation purposes so cover them with plastic and 3 to 4 inches of mulch or dirt or decorative rock. make sure you dont cover near the bushes base as to much soil or whatever you use will kill them