Working With Decorative Stone

The opportunities are endless when you design with decorative stone! Every garden will have some amount of stone as stone is an essential building block and is one of our more basic and reliable elements. With decorative stone you can create and build any number of unique features or seating areas. When using decorative stone in your garden there are a few things to consider

1. Decorative stone colour or type:

The colour of the stone you choose will generally be determined by its type. Most sandstone decorative chippings are sandy yellow in colour but can be pink or red. Granite are generally black, white, black & white or sometime with specks of pink. While limestone are generally greyish, blue to black in colour.

The choice of stone should be influence by your garden’s surroundings. If your garden is based in an area of natural limestone bedrock, then it is likely that the stone walls, surounding landscape & other stone features will be of limestone. With this in mind it is advised that you should then choose limestone as your choice of decorative stone

2. Size of decorative stone:

Depending on use, there is a different size or grade of decorative stone available. Ideally, for example, a driveway should be covered wih decorative stone that is 14mm in diameter and ideally angular cut rather than rounded. This gives a better surface for both walking on and driving on. In flower beds larger sizes of stone are generally used, so a 20mm chipping would be suitable for flower beds. While to make features stand out, such as boulders or ornaments you can lay a larger decorative stone around the base of it such as a 35mm stone

3. Laying of decorative stone:

When ever you choose to lay decorative stone you should always consider the long term look of the area and with this in mind it is important to remember to lay weed control fabric first to form a barrier to prevent weed growth in the future. Ideally spray the ground to kill off ermerging weeds. If the area you are working is destined not to have plants or flowers then you could consider using a path clear weed killer as this will prevent any weed growth in the soil for up to six months. With a heavy duty weed block in place and a layer of decorative stone on top you should have no problem in keeping away any weeds and ensuring that your garden is maintenance free.

4. How much will you need:

To control weed growth and have a sufficient layer of gravel so that you won’t see any bits of weed fabric poping up now and again, you should lay a layer of approx. 3″ over the entire area. This would equate to 8 to 10m2 of gravel for every ton bag. When working out how much stone you need, simply measure the area, measuring the length & depth to determine the area. Then divide that area by 9 and you will have a fairly accurate idea of how much decorative stone you will need