Landscaping for Love and Laughter: Designs and Ideas

You've probably come across natural stone in many places in a garden, like pavers and building blocks for walls. But you can also use rock in less cultivated and more natural shapes in your backyard. Here are two ideas.

Boulder Feature

Why not use boulders to decorate your garden? Landscape supply outlets have a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. You could pick one massive boulder and have them deliver and place it in the right spot in your yard. Or else, arrange several boulders in a gathering, making one of the rocks the star of the display. You'll have various rock species to consider, such as golden sandstone, grey-brown granite or moss-covered bluestone boulders. Dig a hollow in the soil to nestle the rock into the earth and make it look like it belongs. It won't appear to have been delivered via a truck and put on top.

To integrate it with the garden, surround the boulder feature with attractive grasses and flowers. A landscape supplies professional can help with advice about particular plants. You could purchase soil and pile it in your yard to create a mound where you put the boulder and its vegetation. Subtle contours look more organic than a perfectly flat backyard. And the boulder feature will also be more prominent.

Gravel Pathway

Rather than large boulder-sized rocks, you could scatter small pieces to create a gravel pathway. Gravel comes in various colours and rock types, such as granite or limestone, to harmonise it with your garden.

To make your path more stable as you walk along it, choose crushed rock with angular sides and edges rather than rounded river pebbles. Rocks with flatter sides lock together and settle, whereas curved pebbles jostle more if weight is put on the gravel. You can more easily push a lawnmower or wheelbarrow along a crushed-stone path.

Gravel paths suit both formal and casual gardens, and you can transform their look with various types of edging. You could use discrete metal strips to contain stones and stop them from spreading. Or create a decorative border with stone, bricks, coloured concrete or rustic timber. However, edging is not necessary at all. You might prefer an organic look with the gravel dispersing at the sides, making the path border less precise. You'll integrate it into the natural landscape that way, as the stones and lawn or garden beds will mix.