One Stone, Two Jobs
Limestone shows up in Prince George yards in two very different roles. It is the light grey gravel that packs into a clean, firm driveway, and it is the bright decorative rock that lifts a dark garden bed. Same quarry, same stone, different processing.
Getting the choice right comes down to one word on the label.
Minus vs Clear: The Whole Distinction
Minus means the product includes everything from the top size all the way down to dust — 3/4 inch minus contains 3/4 inch stone and every smaller fraction beneath it. Those fines are the glue. When you compact a minus product, the fines fill the gaps between the larger stone and the whole layer locks into a firm surface.
Clear or washed means the fines have been screened or washed out, leaving stone of a consistent size. Nothing binds it, so it stays loose and drains freely forever.
That difference decides everything:
- Want a surface you can drive, walk, or wheelbarrow on? Minus.
- Want decoration, or water to move through freely? Clear.
A driveway surfaced in clear rock never firms up and pushes into ridges under tires. A garden bed filled with minus gravel sets up like a road and sheds water instead of letting it into the soil. Both mistakes are common and both are expensive to undo.
The Four Limestones
| Product | Size | Behaviour | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limestone Driveway Gravel 3/4 inch Minus | 3/4 inch down to fines | Compacts firm | New driveways, rebuilds, deeper potholes, parking pads |
| Limestone Driveway Gravel 1/2 inch Minus | 1/2 inch down to fines | Compacts firm, smoother finish | Finished driveway surface, walkways, tidy parking areas |
| Limestone Landscape Rock 7/8 inch | 7/8 inch, consistent | Stays loose | Garden beds, borders, loose pathways |
| Limestone Landscape Rock 2 1/2 inch | 2 1/2 inch, consistent | Stays loose | Bold beds, dry creek features, around boulders |
Why People Choose Limestone Over Darker Rock
Colour, mostly. Limestone runs light grey to near-white, which does two useful things.
In a garden bed, it brightens shaded or north-facing areas where dark rock reads as a black hole. It also makes plant foliage stand out sharply against it — the reason it is so often used around Japanese maples, ornamental grasses, and specimen shrubs.
On a driveway, the light surface reads as clean and finished, and it holds less heat than dark shale or lava on a hot day.
If you want the opposite effect — a dark, recessive background that lets planting dominate — look at Striker Landscape Rock or Black Lava Rock instead.
Depth and Quantities
Decorative beds: 2 to 3 inches over weed barrier. Deeper is wasted money and makes weeding harder when something does root in.
Driveway surface lift: 2 to 3 inches over an existing compacted base.
New driveway build: 4 to 6 inches of compacted base before the surface lift, more where the ground is soft. If your driveway goes muddy every spring, read how to fix a muddy driveway first — surfacing over a failing base is money down a hole.
Cubic yards = square feet, times depth in inches, divided by 324. A 200 square foot bed at 3 inches needs 200 times 3 divided by 324, which is 1.85 cubic yards.
For minus products, add roughly twenty percent for compaction if you need the full depth after packing.
Put Fabric Under Decorative Rock
Rock does not stop weeds on its own, and loose stone laid straight onto soil slowly sinks into it — the same mixing problem that ruins gravel driveways.
A layer of DeWitt Sunbelt weed barrier under decorative limestone keeps the stone sitting on top where you put it and keeps most weeds from below. It is sold by the foot or by the full roll, so you can buy exactly what the bed needs.
Note that fabric does nothing about seeds that blow in and germinate in the dust that collects between stones over the years. That is normal, and it is a rake-and-pull job, not a fabric failure.
Getting It
All four limestones are sold by the cubic yard, with pickup at the River Road yard or delivery to your place. Quantities as small as a quarter yard are available for pickup, so a single bed does not mean buying a truckload. Enter your dimensions on any product page for an exact price.
Bottom line: minus for anything you drive or walk on, clear for anything decorative, fabric underneath the decorative, and 2 to 3 inches is almost always the right depth.
