Introduction

When it comes to landscaping ideas you’re spoilt for choice. You can use all kinds of plants, walkways, watering spots for birds and so much more. If you need to bring those ideas to life you can search for “paving companies near me” and hire professionals to do the job for you. For now, let’s check out a few landscaping ideas using stones.

The Ideas

1. Dry stone wall – You can use large rocks to create a striking garden wall that makes your plants pop out in all their glory. A dry-stone wall is arguably the most stunning option available to homeowners. These kinds of walls are often found across the British countryside, and they have been created for thousands of years.

They look like a masterpiece since there’s no use of mortar to keep the rocks together. Instead, appropriately sized rectangular or flat stones are sourced and cleverly stacked on top of each other. There are numerous online guides that you can follow to build one for yourself.

However, those stones can be heavy, and it can be very dangerous if you fail to consider the structural integrity of the wall. That’s why you may consider hiring professionals for the job. After this type of wall is built, you can go the extra mile to add moss or tumbling blooms of sedum and other such plants to soften the look.

2. Add visual interest by mixing up textures – This is one of the most cost-effective and low-maintenance ways to use stones in your landscape. Instead of a grass patch, you can cover a section of your backyard with gravel and use a few large and small stones to add contrast. This works even better if you have old structures like a broken pillar or a stump in your garden. That can act as the centerpiece to integrate the whole look.

This is extremely easy to pull off and quite inexpensive since gravel is cheap and once, they are laid on the ground along with a few large rocks and stones, they don’t require any maintenance. Moreover, the places covered by gravel won’t have any grass growing on the ground. This helps you reduce lawn and grass cover and the rigorous maintenance and water consumption that comes with it.

3. Surround a pond with pebbles – If you have a body of water in your garden, you can make all sorts of improvements. A cheap and inexpensive improvement is to surround the pond with pebbles. It’s much better than an exposed bond. You can line the boundary of the pond with large pebbles and make it better in terms of aesthetics.

Moreover, those small strokes and pebbles make it easy for small critters to get in and out of the pond. While smaller pebbles add elegance, you can achieve a rustic look by using large rocks. You also need to add a lot of plants near the pond and add aquatic plants in the pond to add more interest and color to your landscape.

4. Gabion walls – While a drystone wall looks stunning, you can also go for the next best thing – gabion walls. Gabion walls are attractive enough and demand attention from visitors and guests. These structures are made of wire baskets packed full of stones. As long as the wire basket is made from rust-resistant metal, the gabion wall will last you for decades. They are also extremely cheap and easy to build. Just make sure to use less attractive stones in the center and pack the exterior surface of the wired baskets with attractive and colorful rocks.

5. Make a waterfall – If a simple pond with stones on the boundary seems too simple for your taste, you can always build an attractive waterfall. You can use large rocks to make the waterfall and add a lot of character to your landscape. Most people choose to go all out and build a large waterfall against a retaining wall.

You can also use smaller stones and rocks with a shallow stream. In either case, make sure to choose stones and rocks with a variety of shapes and sizes and position them in such a way that they look like nature’s work. You need to create an organic look to make the waterfall look as real as possible.

6. Use large rocks to edge a wall – If you’re looking for garden edging methods, you can use large rocks. Whether you use smaller rocks or large boulders, they do a wonderful job at limiting gravel, plants, and mulch at their proper positions. For instance, if you want to separate your patio and your lawn and make a clear distinction between them, using large rocks is a wonderful idea. Add a few ferns and fatsia japonica and it creates a subtle tropical vibe.

7. Create a Zen Garden with rocks – Rocks are inseparable in Zen gardens. In Zen gardens, rocks are cleverly and carefully positioned with minimal plant cover to symbolize islands and mountains. There are also beds of fine gravel that are raked into circular patterns to represent waves. Japanese Zen gardens go the extra mile to create “dry rivers” with rocks and stones.

 These kinds of dry rivers that are mostly made of rocks may even have an overarching bridge and other such interesting structures. To add a bit more life and sonic character to your Zen Garden, you can also add a shishi-odoshi, a bamboo water feature. This kind of structure has a small bamboo pipe filling up a larger hollow bamboo with water until it overflows and makes the bamboo tip over and hit against the rock to create a tapping sound. However, Zen gardens are very expensive to make.

Conclusion

There are numerous ways to use stones, rocks, and pebbles in your landscape. From building a walkway and a wall to adding more character to water features, you have plenty of options to choose from. If you want the above-mentioned changes to your property, you can search for “paving companies near me” and hire professionals for the job.