Bulk Landscape Materials, Sorted by Size and Grading

Bulk landscape materials get picked by name or by color, and that is the costly mistake on this page. Two piles can look nearly identical in a photograph and behave in opposite ways once a winter storm runs over them, because the things that matter are the size of the stone and whether the material carries fines. Fines bind and compact. No fines means water moves through. Work down the ladder below and the choice usually makes itself.

Stone heavy enough to stay put in a storm channel

At the top of the ladder is RipRap, 4 inches and up, for the exposed edge of a swale, a culvert outlet or a creek bank where runoff is cutting into soil. Railroad Ballast, roughly 1 to 2.5 inches, interlocks under load while draining freely, which suits a work road or an equipment pad. #4 Crushed Stone at about 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches forms an open layer under a heavy-use drive or in the bottom of a wet trench.

Clean crushed rock, sized for drainage rather than compaction

These have the fines washed out, so they never lock up and water always has a route. Drain Rock at 3/4 to 1-1/2 inch handles French drains, drywells and the backfill behind a retaining wall. #57 Stone, sold here as 3/4" Drain Rock, is the standard trench and drainage-layer stone. #67 Stone covers the same work a size smaller, at 1/4 to 3/4 inch. 3/4" Crushed Stone is the angular option for drainage beds and construction entrances, and 3/8" Crushed Stone steps down for pipe bedding and fine drainage. Smaller again, #8 Crushed Stone and #89 Crushed Stone fill paver joints and bed flagstone.

The materials with fines in them, which is why they compact

Class 2 Base is the 1 inch minus graded blend that goes under drives, pads, pavers and slabs, and it is the material the local specification calls for by that name. The class number describes how the material is graded and specified locally, not something certified with the load. Crusher Run at 3/4 inch minus does similar work with a binding layer of stone dust. Decomposed Granite, the 1/4 inch minus screening sold here under that name, packs into the firm path and patio surface that suits a low-water garden, and belongs over a prepared base rather than on loose ground. Driveway Gravel at 3/4 inch and Walkway Gravel at 3/8 inch are the graded wearing courses that go on top.

Rounded stone for beds, borders and dry creek beds

Nothing here compacts, and none of it is meant to. River Cobble at 1 to 3 inches holds its shape and color through the dry season and the wet one. Large River Rock at 2 to 4 inches gives a swale or a dry creek bed some visual weight and slows water crossing it. Pea Gravel, about 3/8 inch, is the smooth, walkable option for patios, paths and play areas.

Sand, soil and the finishing layer on a bed

Mason Sand is the ultra-fine washed sand for paver bedding, mortar and play surfaces. Washed Sand is coarser, for concrete work, backfill and leveling. On the growing side, Top Soil is screened and balanced for lawns and beds, Garden Soil is compost-enriched for planters and raised beds, and Fill Dirt is the clean compactable earth for lifting a low spot before any of that happens. Shredded Mulch finishes beds in a 2 to 4 inch layer and holds moisture through the dry months.

Sizing bulk landscape materials before the order goes in

Size the job with the calculators before ordering, since depth changes the tonnage more than most people expect, then choose the quantity and a delivery date on the product page.

How do I tell a drainage stone from a base material on this page?

Are top soil, garden soil and fill dirt three names for the same product?

We order for jobs rather than for a house. Is there a different catalogue?

Does compaction change how much of a base material I should order?