Photo: Ron Lach

Can you put stones directly on soil?

This is one of the main reasons why it is so common to see rocks on top of soil as it is a very effective way to keep your plants healthier for longer. As well as blocking weeds from growing, placing the right stones on top of soil will also help water drainage.

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WHICH STONE IS RIGHT FOR YOUR GARDEN?

Gardeners from all over the world can reap the benefits from decorative stones in their gardens as they are produced in a wide variety of places around the globe! Due to the vast range of gardeners and designers that use the rocks, there is, as you can expect, many different types to choose from. From large, texture enhancing cobblestones to round and smooth river rocks, it’ll be extremely difficult to not find at least one type of stone that suits your garden. There is a huge selection of decorative stones with various different colours, shapes and sizes. Here is a list of just a few of the most popular ones in more detail:

Brick Chips

The simple process of crushing recycled bricks turns something useless into something with a number of features, brick chips. Whether you want chunky pieces or fine crumbs, the deep red and brown colours that naturally come with bricks are an attractive and attention-grabbing asset for your garden or driveway. Specifically, brick chips are a great use for adding a bright, usually contrasting colour to slightly duller areas in your garden. as well as this, they can be used to improve driveways and be a great form of mulch. Driveways can be drastically improved by replacing your current driveway material with brick chips. When installed properly, they will add a vibrant colour to the front of your home as well as lasting an extremely long time with hardly any maintenance.

The benefits continue:

Low maintenance

Long lasting

Colourful

Strong and sturdy

Weather and insect resistant

Whether you’re a weekend gardener or a professional landscaper, you can find a beneficial use for brick chips.

Crushed Gravel

Perfectly described in the name, crushed gravel is simply rock that has been crushed into fine pieces. This type of decorative rock is available in a variety of sizes depending on what you plan to use it for – the most common sizes range from ¼ to ¾ inches. This style of decorative stone has a large range of uses. You will usually find this rock in a grey colour or something similar, quite sharp round the edges and in any irregular shape. These three features alone make crushed gravel a very adaptable product to use for multiple projects. A few examples of where you can utilise these properties effectively include: driveways, pathways, edging, base rock and basic ground cover. Because of their irregular shapes, crushed gravel interlocks very well which means it provides superb packing. On top of this, by effectively tamping down the gravel, it will anchor to the ground and therefore keep its position even through heavy rainfall. This implies it will be of great use to driveways and a brilliant filler for decorative pathways. By having the ability to anchor into the ground after being tamped, crushed gravel is also the perfect material to be a base rock. A base rock is the initial layer of material for a foundation that will be built on, this could be anything from a footpath to a flower bed.

River Rock

Also known as pebbles, river rocks are the result of a natural process involving running river water. To be classified as a river rock, it must have been shaped and rounded by the naturally running water from the river, hence the name. Once classified as a pebble/river rock, they are separated by size and then have their own unique uses. They are usually found in a spectrum of brown and grey colours and are usually slightly larger than the crushed substances, ranging from half an inch to two and a half inches. An excellent use for this rock is drainage, no one wants a clogged up garden filled with rain puddles but luckily this rock does a brilliant job of preventing that from happening. River rocks are the perfect addition to your swale to make it look better as well as improve its attempts at draining.

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Due to being created in the presence of water, river rocks are one of the best for erosion control. As long as the weight of the rocks are equivalent to the amount of water force your vulnerable areas of erosion are receiving, then they can control the erosion. Their porous material will absorb the water that is causing the erosion instead of anything else, therefore preventing erosion in these targeted areas. Be warned though, avoid using river rocks on sloped surfaces. Due to their rounded edges, your decorative stones will eventually travel down the slopes and end up in a pile at the bottom of it as gravity acts upon them. This is because their rounded edges make it a lot easier for them to move compared to some of the other stones.

Cobblestone

As stated previously, if you crush rock you produce gravel. With this being said, technically cobblestone is gravel because it goes through the same process. The only difference is that cobblestones are much larger and so have different properties and uses. The sizes of these decorative stones range from 2 inches all the way up to 8 inches and the colours vary from greys to whites to browns. Because of the sizes of these rocks, they are great for being used as part of a dry creek bed and other similar landscape features where foot traffic is not desired. Huge cobblestones are not the best type of rock to use as footpath material because they have a large and irregular shape which is not comfortable under the foot, that is why they’re mainly used in landscapes as decoration where walking is not permitted.

More great uses of cobblestone include:

Dividing areas of hardscaping.

Ground cover surrounding footpaths or driveways.

Ground cover to add a different texture and look to the garden.

On the whole, cobblestones have many specialist uses. Landscaping and ground cover are two of the most common uses, remember to hand place the stones in their desired positions as they are too big and heavy to be placed in the correct position in bulk.

Marble

The decorative stone known as marble is made from marble fragments, it was once limestone but from a chemical reaction involving limestone and other substances, marble is formed. It is usually a light-coloured rock, primarily white. However, the more impurities contained within the rock from its formation, the less white it will be; depending on what impurities the marble contains, it could end up being anything from pink to black. Marble is slightly above the neutral level on the PH scale, this means it’s an alkaline and so reacts with acidic substances, reducing their acidity. By crushing the marble into decorative stones, it becomes one of the most effective acid neutralising materials to use. The crushed marble can be used in lakes, streams and ponds to reduce acidity levels. As well as this, using marble to cover soil will also react with any acids they come into contact with and so will aid the plants in their growth. Obviously, if your garden is home to some acid loving plants such as: Magnolias, Camellias and Azaleas, then do not use marble in your soil. Not many other rocks have as many uses as marble. Most of them are related to large objects such as the Taj Mahal, Washington Monument, Cemetery markers, stairs and many more. But, they also have more uses related to the garden.

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These include:

A base rock for water fountains

Garden containers

Landscape stone

Ground cover

Selecting The Right Rock

When you have a rough idea of what stones you want to use in your garden, you must then consider three main elements. These are simply: the colour, the depth of the area you are filling, and the base layer of your stones. After taking these factors into consideration, you will be ready to obtain the rocks best suited to your needs.

Depth

One of the most important factors to consider when selecting your stone is how deep you want them to fill the area. An area too shallow or too deep both have their own problems, so it is imperative to get it right. In general, the thinner your decorative stone (such as finely crushed gravel), the deeper your area needs to be to prevent the stones from loosely and freely moving around. If you are replacing a lawn with gravel, for example, you don’t want to make the area too shallow as this will cause bald patches and other similar issues. In general, a lawn area will require around 2 inches of depth for your decorative rocks to be effective and utilised. Moreover, driveways will need approximately 3 inches of depth for the stones to perform properly.

Colour

While many people expect all rocks to be grey or a similar shade, they forget that decorative stones actually offer a wide range of colour choices. Of course, the choice of brightly coloured pink and blue rocks are not as popular as they once were but they are still an option if it is suited to your garden. For the majority of gardens, however, natural colours are more likely to be of preference. Luckily, these colours are not as limited as you might think. There’s a whole spectrum of natural colours to choose from: whites, browns, beiges, blues, greys, purples and everything in between, these are all considered as natural colours as long as the style of your garden compliments them. Always choose colours based on the style of your garden but, in general, remember that darker colours will absorb heat and create a completely different atmosphere compared to lighter colours. Lighter colours usually form a cooler, more ambient area.

Base Layer

In previous years, plastic has been the material of choice for base layers. But as time has gone on, gardeners have discovered that plastic will eventually breakdown through repeatedly walking on the surface and other factors. The problem with this is that once the plastic has broken down, the weeds can then benefit from the sunlight which allows them to seep through the cracks and spread the rocks, altering the appearance of that particular area. To fix this problem, a new material called weed barrier fabric is used. Unlike plastic, this material cleverly allows water and air through to the soil while still blocking out sunlight so weeds still do not grow. This fabric allows your garden designs to remain how you want them to for a very long period of time without the fear of weeds finding a way through.

grabco.co.uk - Improving Your Garden With Decorative Stone - Grabco

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