River Rock in Maryland: Rounded 1 to 3 Inch Stone for Visible Beds

The job this stone gets ordered for most often on a Maryland lot is a small one: the patch under a downspout where the mulch keeps washing into the lawn. Roof water arriving at one corner of the house during a July thunderstorm moves anything light, and on the slow-draining ground common across the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont it then sits there. Rounded stone stays where it lands, takes the splash without breaking down, and still looks like a deliberate part of the bed rather than a repair.

Reading the load: rounded stone in mixed earth tones

• Size runs 1 inch to 3 inches, so a load has visible variation in it rather than reading as a single uniform texture.
• The stones are smooth and naturally rounded, shaped by water rather than crushed, which is what gives the surface its soft appearance.
• Color covers tans, grays and browns with occasional reds. The mix is the look, and a bed pulls together at a distance in a way a single color does not.
• Dry, the tones are muted and chalky. Wet, they darken and the reds and browns come forward, so a bed that looks pale on a July afternoon reads much richer after rain.
• Expect that contrast to be permanent rather than a phase. The stone is not dyed, so it does not fade out the way mulch does, and a rinse with a hose brings it back when dust has settled on it.

Splash areas, borders and a dry creek through Piedmont ground

• A downspout splash area is the simplest use and the most common. Cover the landing zone and carry the stone a few feet out along the direction the water leaves.
• Foundation beds and borders around a house take the place of mulch that has to be replaced every year and that floats off in heavy rain.
• A dry creek bed handles the runoff crossing a rolling Piedmont yard between a slope and a low point, staying legible as a landscape feature when there is no water in it.
• Rock garden and xeriscape beds suit the stone because it does not rot, does not need annual renewal and lets water through to whatever is planted in it.
• Around a pond edge, a fountain or a water feature, rounded stone is the material that looks like it belongs there.

One local check before a large bed goes in. Within 1,000 feet of tidal water, Critical Area rules limit how much of a lot can be covered, and gravel and stone surfaces count toward that figure. A decorative bed is easy to overlook when you are working the numbers out.

Where rounded stone is the wrong call: under a shed or garage pad

• Example, a shed or garage pad base. Rounded stones roll against each other under load instead of keying together, so they never compact into a stable layer. A pad that has to stay level wants CR-6 built in lifts and rolled, with river rock only appearing as a drip line around the outside if you want the look.
• Anywhere a wheelbarrow, a mower or a car has to cross. The stone moves, the wheel digs, and you spend every spring raking it back.
• As a walking route between two points people actually use. It is unstable underfoot and uncomfortable in bare feet, which is a job for Walkway Gravel.
• As a deep layer against wooden siding or a foundation, where stone piled above the grade line traps moisture against the building.

Depth that covers the soil and stays where you put it

• Two to three inches covers bare soil in a bed and keeps weed growth down without the layer becoming loose enough to shift.
• Larger pieces in the 1 to 3 inch range need the deeper end of that, since a layer that is only one stone thick shows the ground through it.
• On a slope or a dry creek bank, keep the layer shallower and rely on containment. Deep loose stone on a grade creeps downhill after every storm.
• In a splash area, three inches gives the water something to dissipate into instead of driving straight onto soil.
• Landscape fabric under a bed is mainly about keeping the stone out of the soil and the soil out of the stone rather than about drainage, which the rounded shape handles on its own.

Yardage for a splash run, a 22-foot border and a rock garden bed

Square feet times depth in feet, divided by 27, gives cubic yards. Depth in inches divides by 12 first.

• Example, a downspout splash run 12 feet long by 2 feet wide at 4 inches: 12 x 2 = 24 square feet. 4 inches is 0.333 feet, so 24 x 0.333 = 8 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 0.3 cubic yards.
• Example, a border 22 feet long by 3 feet wide at 3 inches: 66 square feet x 0.25 = 16.5 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 0.6 cubic yards.
• Example, a xeriscape or rock garden bed 18 feet by 10 feet at 3 inches: 180 square feet x 0.25 = 45 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 1.7 cubic yards.
• Those three together come to 2.6 cubic yards, which is the more realistic way to order when several small features are going in at once.

At this site's published weight for 1 to 3 inch river rock, about 1.35 tons per cubic yard and approximate, those three come to roughly 3.5 tons together, or about 0.4, 0.8 and 2.3 tons taken separately.

Put the cubic yards through the river rock calculator to check the tonnage before you order.

Stone and soil that share the bed

Most beds use more than one material. 3/8" Natural Pea Gravel gives a finer texture where a smaller stone suits the scale of a planting. Large River Rock sits in a dry creek as the feature pieces with the smaller grade filling around them. Shredded Mulch still earns its place around plants that want moisture held at the root through a humid August, and plenty of beds run mulch at the planting and stone at the drainage end.

Measure the bed, choose a depth, then set a quantity and a delivery date on this page. If several features are going in and you would rather order once, send the measurements through contact and the total can be worked through before you book.