Ways To Include Natural Stone In Your Garden Landscape
While soft and feathery plants and flowers are beautiful and the essence of a garden, they look more stunning against a contrasting hard material such as natural stone. Whether in large slabs or small pebbles, the ethereal colours and textures of rocks add decorative appeal to a landscape. And you can put rock to many practical uses also. Here are two ways to do this.
Retaining Walls
Rocks create gorgeous retaining walls with which you can create raised garden beds or different tiers within a sloping garden. Plus, a low wall around a patio creates ideal seating for when you have parties and gatherings. To build these barriers, you can use blocks of granite, limestone travertine or sandstone, or else you can combine various irregular rock pieces within a wire cage to form a gabion retaining wall.
The benefit of stone is that you can select from a range of colours, such as blues, greys, tans, pinks and yellows. Use tawny sandstone blocks in a row to compose a classic monotone wall, or stack random chunks of varied rock species and hues for a colourful effect. Check with an expert when you next pick up your landscape supplies on what's the best option to use for your creation.
Gravel Pathways
Another way to harness the beauty of stone is to spread pea gravel along pathways and patios. Pea gravel consists of small rounded pebbles, of similar size, which creates an appealing and neat surface. Echo the colour of your outdoor furniture in the stones for a pleasing, harmonious look, and don't forget to consider the hues on your home and the nearby foliage and trees. Rounded pea gravel—smoothed by natural elements such as river water— is different from angular crushed stone, which is broken up by a machine. Pea gravel is ideal for drainage, as it allows rainwater to filter away rather than forming puddles.
To contain the pebbles so that they don't scatter everywhere, create a border of stone pavers around the patio or path. Pavers can also keep the gravel evenly dispersed on a long trail if you create separate rectangular sections of gravel that join together to form one long path. To do this, place stone pavers horizontally across the track at intervals—as well as along the edges—to break it up into multiple areas. This tactic prevents the gravel from collecting at one or another end of a long walkway.