Get matched with top mulch and topsoil pros in Warrens, WI

A gravel driveway costs from $1.25 to $1.80 per square foot, including materials and installation. Cost factors for this project include the type of gravel, its thickness, and the amount of site preparation required.

Consider these cost estimates for a 20-foot-long driveway:

• 1-car (240 square feet): $300–$432

• 2-car (480 square feet): $600–$864

• 4-car (960 square feet): $1,200–$1,728

Here are gravel driveways costs for a 50-foot-long driveway:

• 1-car (600 square feet): $750–$1,080

• 2-car (1,200 square feet): $1,500–$2,160

• 4-car (2,400 square feet): $3,000–$4,320

Topsoil should go down first. If the topsoil is next to your house, make sure the grade slopes away from the house to keep water from pooling against your foundation and possibly leaking into your basement or crawl space. Don’t cover your decorative landscape mulch with topsoil as that defeats the purpose of laying down the mulch. If you’re trying to create a certain soil composition to improve plant growth, you’ll likely want compost mixed into the topsoil instead of mulch. Over time, any decorative wood mulch will simply decompose under the topsoil.

The best mulches for trees are wood chips, bark nuggets, or pine straw. Depending on your goals, you may want to avoid using plastic, stone, rubber, or wet grass clippings. Plastic mulch prevents water from reaching the mulched areas of your tree, stones don’t offer any nutritional benefits to the soil, rubber can release byproducts into the soil when it decomposes, and wet grass clippings can lead to rot. 

Plastic may prove beneficial in cold climates in the winter, but wood chips are the ideal option for most environments.

Yes, you need to use landscape fabric under your rubber mulch. Rubber mulch doesn’t decompose, so putting landscape fabric down can work as a barrier between your mulch and soil, preventing your mulch from mixing with your soil and leaching chemicals like aluminum, cadmium, and copper into it. Also, since weeds can occasionally get through rubber mulch, using landscape fabric as a second form of protection can increase its effectiveness.