WHICH TYPE OF STONE MATCHES YOUR LANDSCAPING

When you plan to landscape your yard, it’s generally recommended that you plan out your hardscaping first. Since there are so many different types and colours of stones, and so many ways they can be used, it’s much easier to design the rest of your yard to match with the type of stone features you use.

Landscaping rocks have a unique ability to complement the texture of gardens, separate one area from another, make lovely decorations, and also serve a variety of practical functions such as flooring for patios or mulch for the garden. If you can’t decide what types of stones to use to go with your plan for landscaping, then here are some tips:

Lava rock

People who use lava rock in their landscapes are generally going for a pop of colour, as the deep hues of red and rust offer a fabulous contrast against the green foliage of gardens and lawn. Typically, lava rock comes in a variety of textures and shapes that helps to set apart more modern-looking gardens. Set up large pieces of rock on their own as a striking garden feature, use it to add colour to your stone patio, or even as mulch to add to your garden beds, walkways or planters.

River rocks

Generally, river rocks are light-coloured and have a very smooth finish, which is why people use them in or around water gardens and along walkways for a more decorative look. Even better, if you’re planning on building a dry creek bed, making it with different sizes, colours and shapes of river rock will add authenticity to the feature.

Slate

Slate rock is very popular for landscaping, especially when you require a flat surface for a patio or pool deck. Besides the fact that slate is so durable, people also love that it comes in a variety of colours to suit just about any type of landscape. Dark slate tiles are fantastic to use if you want to create a classy look for your outdoor entertaining areas, but many people also like the mottled-style of slate tiles because it adds a rustic element.

Marble

Marble goes well near fountains or in potted plants, as it looks nice and sparkly when wet. If your soil is quite acidic and you want to make it less so, adding marble chips is a very practical way to change the pH. As tiles, marble radiates style and sophistication, which is why people love putting them around their pools. Not only that, but marble has this fantastic ability to avoid getting too hot in the sunlight, which is another great reason to use it for a pool deck.

Granite

Granite stone brings a very natural element to your landscaping, and its durability is legendary. The major colours of granite include pink, white, grey and black, but the relative proportion of each colour is different for each piece of rock. This makes granite fantastic to use if you want multidimensional colours for different hardscaping features such as wall cladding, pavers, rock walls or even as feature stones in the garden.

There are so many great types of rocks you can use to go with your landscape design that you are really only limited by your own imagination.