Hey everyone. So I live in an area that is mostly clay underneath the ground. To keep my foundation from shifting when it contracts during the dry months, I have to water it regularly. I have a soaker hose that runs around the house, placed 1 foot away from the foundation.
This creates a problem with mowing where I can't just let my robot mower (or my push mower) run freely because of the risk of the soaker hose getting caught up in the blades, which has already happened once when I accidentally mowed too close.
To resolve this, I want to kill the grass (using landscaping fabric) in the 1 foot space between the foundation and hose and replace it with something else so I don't need to bother manually trimming it. At the same time, I don't want to use organic stuff like mulch because underground termites also exist in my area and I don't want it to attract them close to the foundation.
A brief search pointed me to using gravel. However, the problem with stones (especially larger ones) is that they also trap moisture underneath them, and the dark and damp areas can also maybe attract termites. Reading a bit more, I think a good compromise would be smaller and uneven gravel/rocks, as more space between them means sunlight penetrates more and moisture gets dried up quickly. Is this a good solution?
Yeah, I'm not exaggerating when I say people in my area are spending tens of thousands to level their foundation and fix cracks on their walls after 10 years of not maintaining the moisture of the soil around and underneath their houses. It's that bad here.
Thanks for the lava rock recommendation! I'll look into it. And yeah, I probably do need to get a moisture meter to determine how often and how much I need to water. I tried a smart meter once, the one that you attach between the outdoor faucet and the soaker hose. It had a timer, schedule, rain detection, and all that jazz. But it broke down within a week, and I don't want to risk something that might fail-open with faucet just open. Maybe I need to look for a better quality one. Anyways, thanks!