Landscaping is a creative process where you are putting a lot of work into ensuring your yard looks just the way you want it. It can help your property value in the long run as well. Spending at least 5% of your home’s value on landscaping may get an ROI (return on investment) of as much as 150% when you go to sell it. One of the more unique ways to increase your home’s value will be through the use of crushed concrete. Finding proper uses for crushed concrete in your yard is one of the more creative ways to design a stylish yard that has a solid foundation.
If you find yourself asking “What is crushed concrete made from? What am I putting in my yard?” have no worries. Crushed concrete is made from recycled materials. Aggregate suppliers put either unused or demolished clean concrete or pavement in a clean, environmentally friendly mixture called crushed concrete aggregate.
Whether you have tons of crushed concrete at your disposal, or just a small trailer full, here are some of the best uses for crushed concrete in your yard.
Raising a Garden Bed
Filling the underneath of a garden bed to raise it a few inches can work wonders for the drainage of your plants. Also, the combination of the crushed concrete and mulch will provide warmer soil for quick germination in the springtime.
Either using the crushed concrete to raise the garden bed or outline it are useful ways to make use of the crushed concrete. You can combine this with crushed shell as nutrients. The crushed seashell for garden act as a mulch and are an organic method to fertilize the bed.
Making Pathways
Making pathways in your yard is one of the more common ways to make use of recycled concrete. Not only do the pathways give your guests walking lanes that will not damage the plants or grass in your yard, but it will effectively give your yard a sleek, unique look.
Utilizing Property Drainage
The crushed concrete you are putting into your yard can be a great alternative form of drainage in your yard. To do this you will need to dig a trench around areas of your property where the most water gets built up. You then fill the trenches with the broken concrete pieces to enhance the drainage. Be sure to cover the concrete with some PVC drainage pipe and then cover that pipe with more crushed concrete. Replace the soil and you have properly set up an alternative way to utilize property drainage in your yard.
Making Walls and Fences
Another one of the uses for crushed concrete in your yard is using it to make walls or fences. Taking your crushed concrete and putting it in a gabion (a cage, cylinder, or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil) makes a good wall on sloping hillsides. This helps prevent erosion in your yard as well as create a good planting site for a terraced garden.
Another way to prevent erosion in your yard is riprap. This is when you place the concrete along the shore of a body of water. If you have a pond in your yard, this is a great way to prevent the surrounding area from falling into the water.
Mulching
It might be surprising to you, but one of the uses for crushed concrete is a substitute for traditional mulch. Compared to it, crushed concrete is equal to traditional mulch in its ability to regulate moisture and temperature levels in soil. What puts crushed concrete above traditional mulch is that it does not rot, decay, or decompose as times passes.
Obviously, it does not apply the nutrients that mulch gives plants, so using crushed concrete in your garden will depend on the plants you have there. If they do not need the mulch’s nutrients, you can set the crushed concrete just one time with no fear of it attracting bugs or other pests and it is heavy enough to not be blown away by strong rains or heavy winds.
Those are the best uses for crushed concrete in your yard. Apply whatever works for you for a great foundation in landscaping.