Landscaping with natural stone has had an appeal at all times. A landscape with natural stone looks as traditional as contemporary. Its charm has never faded and it has never been considered outdated. Actually, stone being very much a part of the natural environment, nothing can be as convincing as a landscape with natural stone. No wonder, people in all ages have exploited the great natural chemistry that stones share with Nature to create artistic landscapes for their gardens, yards, walkways, even patios and exterior walls.
Why Choose Natural Stone For Landscaping?
Natural stone is available in a wide array of colors, shapes and sizes and essentially forms an important aspect of eye-catching landscapes. Rocks and stones perfectly compliment a home’s softscape — lawn, plants and trees, hedges — making for an attractive, breathtaking natural landscape if it is done the right way. A landscape with natural stone, in addition, ranks equally high on the comfort level, practicality and durability.
Thus, a landscape with natural stone is a far practical option to toiling for a lush green lawn in hot and dry desert like areas. Teaming decorative crushed rock with drought-resistant plants like cactus and other perennial plants that can survive year after year in arid climates will not only look attractive but will be very cost-effective. In addition, your dry rock landscaping will not need any maintenance planning as such.
How To Select Natural Stone For Landscaping?
Landscaping applications of natural stone range from rock gardens to garden ponds, stepping-stones to patios, walkways to edgings, garden benches to walls and garden lamps to planters. There is, in fact, no standardized landscaping and you can set free your imagination to invent never-seen-before landscapes. All you need to be careful about is the selection of stones.
The selection of a stone while designing a landscape with natural stone depends on the use the stoned surface will be put to. Thus, if you are working on a pathway, you will have to take care that the surface is smooth and safe enough for high heel parades. However, if you seek a rustic touch, you can select stones with coarse surface texture and rounded edges, like silvery gray water-washed flagstone. Your open-air dining zone and patios, similarly, should have flat, smooth surfaces. Any porous textured rock like the light pink / tan Arizona flagstones will present unsightly spots and blotches (of oil and food spills) in these areas. The chocolate Arizona flagstone will be a better choice. Quartzite, though smooth, will be far too slippery in frosty weather.
The next thing to be considered is the thickness of a landscaping stone. If you are considering a cement base (mostly 4-inch) for the pathway, you can opt for ¼ to ¾ inch thick stones cut with saw blades like Ceramic Tile Saw Blades . However, if you are thinking of laying stones in sand, you will have to use 1- to 2-inch stones. Stones less than ¾-inch thick (laid in sand) easily go to pieces under excessive weight.
The last and most important criterion for choosing a stone in creating a landscape with natural stone is the stone’s color. The general rule is to choose a color working well with the surroundings. Of course, spelling magic with different shades and hues in single stone types is allowed. Thus, you can illumine the underside of a thick, dark canopy of trees by placing a light colored garden bench made of Boquet Canyon or Lompoc Flagstone. On the other hand, sitting arrangements in bright, sunny zones look best if their brilliance is softened moderately.
A landscape with natural stone is indeed a luxurious enhancement for your home surroundings. Whether it is to create mosaic of color stone arrangement on the walls, or tempting flowerbeds or water features, natural stone look matchless in their beauty! Moreover, with the many health benefits being attributed to natural stones, people will continually go for landscaping with natural stone!