Stones for landscape design - a review of popular ideas with natural stone and pebbles (70 photos)

Where to use the stone?

In the landscape business, there have long been many options for using stone to decorate areas. Almost any modern project cannot do without this kind of decor. So, with the help of stones they design:

  • Paths, alleys, entrances to garages or parking spaces;
  • Fountains, sides and decorative steps;
  • Fences, enclosures, gazebos and arches;
  • Slides, waterfalls, “stone streams”;
  • Walls of a house, summer kitchen and other buildings;
  • Flowerbeds


Of course, nothing limits your imagination here; stones can be used not only for decoration or cladding, but also as an independent element (or even the center) of a composition.

Thus, such projects are usually brought to life by creating a Japanese garden or a Japanese zone on the site, because it is in the culture of this country that raw stone plays a very important role, and for a garden it is simply necessary.

Sculptural compositions

It is possible to turn stones in a garden plot into real works of art. It is enough to use your imagination and make an effort. Working with dense material is hard and painstaking, but the work brings magnificent results.

In recent years, gabions have become popular. To complete the ensemble you will need a frame that you can actually make yourself.

How to use natural stone in the landscape?

A Japanese garden is a case when you do not need to purchase decorative stone or facing tiles or invite a designer. It will be enough to create a collage yourself (suitable photos of stones in landscape design can be found on the Internet), and then put it into practice.

The more naturalness there is in the selected boulders and pebbles, the more iconic the garden will be. It is especially worth taking a closer look at stones of irregular but streamlined shape: the key to your success is smooth lines and soft transitions, the absence of sharp corners.

Small pebbles should be soft and light; oval, round or bean-shaped: everything in a Japanese garden speaks of softness and tranquility.


Another great solution would be to use natural boulders in any landscape-type landscape design, because the motto here is to imitate nature in all its manifestations. This means you don’t even need to carry boulders from place to place, process them, knocking off sharp corners, clean, split or remove moss and lichen.

All these are traces of natural influence, so for a site drowned in greenery and the shadow of centuries-old trees, a large century-old stone will become an excellent decorative element, visually complementing the composition and as if transporting the viewer somewhere into endless ancient and mysterious forests.

For those who like to put their hand directly into the creation of landscape design, as well as for creative people, there is another way to decorate their site with unique creations of human imagination - painting garden stones.

You can either create complex patterns or simply fill boulders with multi-colored paints, achieving an incredible mixture of shades. Special craftsmen will even be able to create a real masterpiece by depicting a landscape or portrait on the flat side of the stone.

For these purposes, it is better to use acrylic paints or paints in spray cans: they are not washed off with water and wash out more slowly than others.


To give the design a glossy shine and secure the image, you can coat the surface of the stone with a clear varnish, but usually a design with natural wear and slightly faded colors is much more pleasing to the eye than a huge boulder glinting in the sun.

rocky flower garden

Landscape designers offer many ways to combine traditional plants and stones in a flower garden. Small pebbles can be used to fill individual parts of the site. This technique will be an excellent decor and background for planting.


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A natural stone

Granite and gneiss. Graceful and aristocratic-conservative, they are used for cladding arbors, arches, fountains and buildings. What is attractive here is the range of eye-pleasing shades, which allows you to choose the ideal color scheme for almost any landscape model.

Basalt looks interesting in the design of decorative elements of the composition: the range of shades varies from smoky gray to black-green.

Soft rocks: sandstone, slate, limestone, which are most often used to design paths, paths, and lining garages or sheds. Such a stone in decor looks neat and does not catch the eye.

Stones, which are clusters of crystals, give the landscape a special chic. These rocks include marble (easy to process, easy to maintain and allowing you to choose the right color from a huge number of known shades) and porphyry, the color range of which is expressed in various shades of red.

Tuff. It is a porous, lightweight stone, similar to a sponge. It absorbs moisture well and seems to be a clear example of natural erosion - this effect is to the advantage of designers.

Phosphorescent stone

The category is completely special. In the light they are no different from other decorative elements and are completely invisible, but at night you will notice a bright glow.

That is why it is worth using it to completely pave paths or simply decorate the border. Also, luminous stones for the garden and landscape are suitable for the sides of pools, ponds and fountains.

Small architectural forms

Various small architectural forms can be made from simple stones. Each specimen has a unique natural relief and texture.

You can refine the characteristics with the help of tools and imagination. It is not at all necessary to try to make an ornate or lacy outline. Even a simple stone with natural relief can surprise you with its beauty.

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Decorating an area with stones is not difficult at all. Some people have to buy expensive material for this, while others have the chance to make full use of the gifts of nature.

There is no need to turn the rockiness of the site into a tragedy. You just need to beat the situation to your advantage.

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