Material under playset

We recently purchased the cedar summit panoram playset at costco. We are having a handy man come saturday to install it for $400...not a bad price. My husband leveled the ground today and put down landscape paper and then he will border it out with railroad ties. We are still deciding what to put down under play set. I refuse to spend more on ground material than I did on the playset. I will not spend two or three thousand dollars on rubber mulch...just dont have that kind of money to throw around. the area is 28 x 31...any suggestion. We are tossing around pea gravel, wood chips, mulch...not sure if there are other options...we thought maybe sod but then I quickly thought that was a bad idea.

Re: Material under playset

We have small rocks. We had a landscaper put railroad ties around the play set and he said don't waste the money for rubber mulch.

Our daycare has a roll out fake grass. Just like the backyard in the Brady Bunch. I like that a lot. She said she got it at home depot.

Re: Material under playset

Glad you asked this...I was just wondering what do people generally use. I also dont want to use mulch and cant imagine if real grass would be a good idea under a large playset.

Re: Material under playset

we did cedar mulch and did not like it... we ended up with a top layer of sifted wood chips. i love it!!!