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Don't do it. I had gravel in my yard. After a year, not only were the weeds poking through, it was next to impossible to get all the leaves and leaf bits, dead blossoms from the tree above, sticks and dirt and everything else out of the gravel. It ends up looking awful. I scraped it all up and gave it away to some other sucker on Craig's list. Now I have flowers and bark and I'm much happier. Somehow all the crud mentioned above doesn't show up as well on the bark. And it's easier and cheaper to replace.

I have gravel and i am very happy with it. It does require some prep work to make it work for you in the long run. I think a lot of people just slap it down with the idea that if it looks good, it must be good! To prep I dug out a layer of dirt, put down sand, then a barrier fabric and then the gravel. Weeds can't come throught the fabric. I also used larger gravel than what is shown in the picture above, so i can use a blower or a shop vac to deal with debis in between the rocks. A great resource for help, inforamtion and gravel is Bourget Brothers Building Materials in Santa Monica on 11th.

Ya, you definitely have to use some kind of barrier! The store I used to work at sold rolls of a soft, weed-proof barrier that you laid down under gravel. You could also use the plastic liner they use for small ponds.

Raking cleans up most of the leaves and stuff that will fall into the gravel but it's a pain if you have a large area.

I've been living with a gravel lawn for several years now and it is terrible. Yes, proper preparation helps somewhat, but over time dirt and weed seeds blow into the gravel and weeds grow in it anyway, and it's an incredible pain to try to clear it out.

Even worse, the one I live with (technically it's outside the apartment I rent, but not my yard) is on a slight slope, so the gravel slides downhill and gets into everything. If you really have a black thumb, consider just putting in concrete (I can't believe I just said that).

I don't know but weeds still grew through the barrier I had under my gravel, and now I can't even see the gravel!

I'm not a fan of the typical suburban grasses but gravel yards are hated here. Barriers fail. Always weedy. Neighbors make nasty comments. It's not pretty.

Good luck with whatever you choose. :0)

Gravel worked well for us, but we had a flame weeder that we used 2 -3x/year to exterminate the weeds. Works like a charm!

regards,
trillium

Find a dense, low-maintenance groundcover that doesn't demand extra water in your climate (it needs to be dense so weeds can't poke through). Gravel will make your hard hotter, which makes your house hotter, which increases your AC bill. And gravel isn't giving back any oxygen -- it just sits there, until it rolls away and ends up somewhere you didn't want it.

Could you grow a camomile lawn? I had one in Dublin, a damper climate, of course.

Gravel ends up being a bigger pain than a lawn in every way except water bill. It rolls. It gets leaves and sticks caught in it. It reflects heat. And oh yes it grows weeds out the wazoo.

I'd look at a mix of pavers and succulent ground covers like ice-plant, sedums, and even thyme is surprisingly tough on little water. And none of those get tall.