Fence Edging / Cover Up

We bought a house about a year ago which has a big backyard with a nice, recently stained fence seen below:



However, all along the edging of the entire fencing, there is no grass. It's just dirt, and many of the posts have visible concrete seen in the pictures below:







Mulch would look very nice, but I don't want to take the chance of having a wood fence and mulch combination bringing termites into our home. I don't really like the idea of rocks either. I think some type of brick, level with the ground, would look very nice.

However, that might not work with the concrete shown around the posts. I would also be fine with trying to plant grass up to the fence. My main goal here is to hide the concrete around the posts, and cover up the dirt edging.

Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

Stones your best bet.
If you planted grass there the weed trimmer would destroy the wood and remove the stain, mulch would hold in moisture and never allow the wood to dry out and cause even more rotting to that wood already installed to close to grade.

 

I agree. Either mulch or stone will do a nice job. Cedar or cyprus mulch is less likely to attract termites than some of the others, could even check into recycled tire mulch.

 

I agree stones would look nice. Any ideas on how to cover up the concrete if so? Or not much you can do about that?

 

Even if the decorative stone doesn't cover the concrete, once it's all done the concrete won't stick out all that bad. IMO it would be acceptable enough that you wouldn't notice after awhile.

 

Mulch is not going to "attract" termites to the house, there already in the ground eating all the old dead tree roots from when that lot was cleared long ago.
If that's a worry you can get a free inspection from any exterminator, not a bad idea to do it just for piece of mind.
While there on site there also going to be checking for moisture damage.
I've been under hundreds of homes doing inspections for one reason or another, amazing the things you'll find.
Dryer vent just blowing into the crawl space, home owner thought that would help keep the floors warmer, what it did was add so much moisture it caused fungus to grow that ate out all the floor joist.
I've seen many a disconnect sewer line, one brand new house never had the drain for the shower connected to the sewer system so water was just dumping on the ground.
Disconnected heating ducts, unsealed ducts, ducts with rusted out holes in them.
Just amazes me how many home owners have never been under there home or even in the attic.
About the only place your likely not going to find termites is some place where there's been open fields for about 100 years, nothing for them to eat.

 

Thank you, Joe. Very informative and interesting information.

 

I had a similar situation- not involving a fence, but wanting to "hide" a small strip of concrete in a planting bed. I had placed mulch, but the concrete still "peeked out", as the mulch shifted (not a big deal, but it showed). I found a product "Valspar Outdoor Color"-spray paint, picked a color to match the mulch, and sprayed the concrete. It worked.
Good luck with your project.