Important details of landscape design: decorative stones in your garden

If earlier lovers of a pleasant view outside the summer house or a country house devoted their free time to gardening, today this art has gradually reached a professional level, having acquired new, previously uncharacteristic features, and has become known as landscape design. Thanks to this approach, anyone can recreate the beauty of nature on its backyard territory, which previously could have become a kind of pilgrimage site for local residents.

A key feature of landscape design is the active use of any natural materials, and stone of different varieties is able to play almost a key role there.

Different nations have tradition of using stones as garden decorations many centuries ago.In Japan, for example, they even invented a special rock garden in which there are no plants at all, but boulders are laid out in artistic order.

Today, the use of garden stones is due to the fact that they allow you to significantly change the relief of the site, give it maximum similarity with the natural, and even replace some non-stone relief elements, creating pebble lawns or stone streams.

The advantages of using stone elements in landscape design, each owner sees in his own way, but, in general, they can be described as follows:

• The possibility of creating a corner of nature to your own taste. Even if your own plot is ideally suited to the needs of agriculture, that is, it is smooth and boring, and the soul requires a beautiful place to rest, you can try to diversify the relief by different types of stones.

• Departure from too hackneyed traditions and solid lawns. In our area, ordinary green lawns are still considered a model of designer chic, and although they look really pretty good, they cannot be called something original. Moreover, greens look beautiful when it does not occupy the entire horizon, but is set off by something.
• The variety of possible designs.If you take an artistic stone as ordinary cobblestones with pavement, then you will not succeed much in design, but you should remember that modern designers use more than a dozen types of stones of different texture and size, as well as colors. This allows you to inscribe stone elements in the environment in the most unexpected form.

• Low cost. On the one hand, buying a large amount of stone and its proper distribution on the ground can cost the owner a rather large amount of money, on the other hand, the stones do not deteriorate over time, do not require any further costs, and can last for many decades.
• Clean and practical. Stones are always clean, as they do not form dirt even when mixed with large amounts of water. In addition, they do not require any maintenance or renovation, so that once the designed design will remain in its original form for many years.

Due to the fact that in our time for the landscape design used the most diverse types of stone, the design possibilities have expanded to the limit, allowing not to limit the creative imagination in anything.If earlier designers had to use only natural stone, then today there are artificial analogues that allow either copying natural material or expanding the choice of available options.

It should be noted that the stones created with the direct participation of man, are in higher demand due to its price, which is significantly lower than that of natural analogues. At the same time, they are not always something like stones or pebbles, which, of course, is a definite plus. Traditionally, the first artificial stone is considered to be a brick, and although it is rarely perceived in this way, and even less often as a material for landscape design, it is quite capable of fitting into it.

Along with concrete and artificial concrete stones, it is an excellent side material that allows you to protect and severely restrict flower beds, lawns, a little raised above the level of the lawn road, or even just reinforce a small picturesque rock. Often brick blocks and concrete boulders are also used for paving.

Modern artificial pebbles, from which interesting lawns and dry streams are made, often have nothing to do with wild nature.Its individual components are often small glass beads. A plastic variant is also common. Manual production only contributes to experiments with coloring, so it is not surprising that this material is often colored.

Even special luminous stones for landscape design are produced, which have gained immense popularity in the field of finishing small garden ponds and laying paths.

Natural material will cost the customer much more expensive, because in our area it is not so easy to get it. Landscape design specialists can compete with experienced geologists in their knowledge of the many varieties of stony rock used, and River pebbles is the only mineral for decoration that is literally found everywhere. It, by the way, is also used quite often (for example, to set off bright green around it in a calm tone).

Riding chic in the design of the garden is the use of granite, which is good for everyone: and an attractive appearance in many colors, and amazing reliability and durability.Only its price scares, therefore, as an alternative, less bright and catchy gneiss or durable, but porous basalt are often chosen.

From what we have a lot of, a slate can be a substitute, which is distinguished by a wide palette of shades, but these are rather decorative boulders for a lawn than a reliable basis for durable buildings. Do not forget about the marble.

Alpine dolomite is rightly considered to be one of the most beautiful rocks, because it is actively used to decorate green lawns, but it should be used carefully, because this stone is quite easily destroyed by water. Because of this, it is completely inapplicable for decorating reservoirs, as well as sandstone - a cheaper, but bright mineral with similar properties.

A specific contrast to the described hydrophobic stones is tuff, which, thanks to its porous structure, is capable of absorbing a large amount of water, and without any harm to itself.Such a mineral is rarely found in landscape design, since it is difficult to get it, and it is difficult to write it into the design, but successful examples show that it is worth working in this direction.

As practice shows, boring big boulders or uninteresting gray pebbles in the hands of a good designer can become a real decoration for the landscape of the area around a country house, but even professionals of the business are not always able to deviate from standard sketches, and the best craftsmen require fabulous money for their services .

In this situation, our compatriots prefer to try to do their own garden design, even if starting from some bored types. In addition, many people want to express themselves creatively, decorating the suburban area. In order to use the potential of boulders as completely as possible, it is worth remembering once again how to use them in the garden:

• Colored pebbles, if necessary, can replace a grassy lawn, shading it, or even allowing you to create small inscriptions or paintings.
• A curious solution may be a kind of stone oasis - a few southern plants, collected in a small corner around a tiny reservoir, and shaded to heighten the effect of emphasized rocky base.

• If the stones are large and picturesque, then you can make a full-fledged rockeries, when it is not the mineral that emphasizes the greens growing on top of it, but on the contrary, the greens act as a clear accent over the stones. Such a solution looks great with both conifers and flowers.

• Alternatively, the green zone can be limited to a small picturesque wall, especially if it is noticeably elevated above the level of the tracks, implies the presence of several tiers at once.
• The stone is predictably actively used for finishing water bodies of any type. We can speak here about a classic pond, whose banks are artificially laid out with large boulders or small pebbles, or about fountains. By properly hiding the water supply and drainage system under the pebbles of the middle fraction, you can simulate a real source made from a hose and tap.

• The stone can not only be used near water, but also completely replace it. First of all, for such purposes, the so-called dry streams are used, imitating the bottom of the present, but dried out stream.Perhaps the presence of real water would revive the landscape, but creating a small stream requires constant costs and increases the risk of contamination of the site.

• Strangely enough, even lamps can be made of stones, more precisely, with their use. For this, gabions are widely used - special woven metal meshes, which in a certain way constitute a single artistic whole with a lamppost. The mesh is filled with small stones of various shapes and sizes, making the garden look very romantic.
• Those who love the classic Japanese culture, and can completely abandon the greenery, creating a real Japanese rock garden. This phenomenon is a composition of large boulders and small pebbles, in which there is no place for real greenery.

To create a beautiful landscape design, the best advice would be to invite a good designer, but many of our fellow citizens prefer to do it themselves. It is worth drawing their attention to a few reasonable Arguments to consider before purchasing minerals and starting work:

• Even independent work and the use of the maximum amount of scrap materials will require a significant amount of time and effort, so you should not start without being sure of the final result. Careful planning and preliminary sketching are key to success.

• Although the stone is a symbol of strength, you should not naively believe that this applies equally to absolutely any minerals. For example, the same dolomite or sandstone is easily eroded by water, and although this does not happen literally before our eyes, the effect is noticeable quite soon. This does not mean that these or other materials will have to be abandoned in principle, however, it should be borne in mind that certain stones may be unsuitable for use in some situations.
• You can always try to invent something completely new, but the risk of repeating other people's ideas (or even complete artistic failure) is always present. Therefore, there is nothing shameful in spying the idea in advance, and at the same time the methods for its implementation.

Decorative stones for the garden do not necessarily require an exquisite design. It is enough to lay out the walkway in the country not with boring tiles, but with pieces of concrete stone of various shapes and sizes, add large boulders on the sides - that's all, the masterpiece is ready.

For example, the use of colored gravel instead of traditional green grass will make the flower garden interesting, help to shade small islands of greenery, and most importantly - allow the owner to make such a corner unique and ideal for him.

Own water reservoir is a blue dream of many people, but under the conditions of an average Russian country house it seems more like an inexpressive puddle with muddy water, at best an extremely dull swimming pool. At the same time, it is not so difficult to imitate the natural conditions for the stream in a small area, if you connect the imagination.

How to beautifully arrange a garden with stones, see the following video.