Where stone barrenness and floral splendor meet, breathtaking garden pictures with artistic standards are created. Garden design with stones and gravel is therefore aimed at a congenial partnership with specialists from the plant kingdom. Get inspiration for your individual garden with stones and gravel here.
How do you design a garden with stones and gravel?
Garden design with stones and gravel includes the insertion of boulders, slope reinforcement, dry stone walls and gabions. Gravel is used as an inexpensive floor covering, mulch, river simulation in Japanese gardens and for gravel paths. Suitable plants include ash maple, rocket juniper, lavender or coneflower.
Ideas in stone - this is how you integrate stones into your garden
Mother Earth has a large treasure trove of magnificent types of stone ready for us that beautify the garden. From cheap sandstone to expensive natural stone, there is something for every budget. This is how stones fit harmoniously into the garden image:
- Boulders as majestic eye-catchers and optical havens of calm
- As a decorative and stabilizing slope attachment
- The ideal filling for gabions as a privacy wall
- Indispensable building material for dry stone wall
Under the hands of creative stonemasons, stones are transformed into elegant accessories for every garden style. In the Japanese Garden, stone lanterns, steles and Buddhas are important elements for an authentic design. Professionally processed, stones act as a bench for eternity in the cottage garden, the Mediterranean and baroque garden.
Design stylishly with gravel – more than just a hodgepodge of stones
Gravel boasts a variety of advantages that go far beyond its simple appearance. Gravel as a floor covering is significantly cheaper than paving. As a white or colored mulch, gravel in the bed compensates for temperature fluctuations, keeps the soil moist for longer and suppresses annoying weeds. This is how the stones fit decoratively into your garden design:
- The ideal substrate in the Mediterranean garden
- As a curved raked floor covering to simulate a river in the Japanese garden
- Gravel paths give box gardens and cottage gardens a genuine flair
- Gravel surface ensures more safety at fireplaces
Even this short excursion into the multifaceted possible uses shows why imaginative garden design cannot do without gravel.
These plants harmonize with stones and gravel
In creative garden design, stones and gravel serve as prosaic elements, whereas plants take on the lyrical part. However, not every plant is suitable for combination with the inorganic material. The following list names proven species and varieties:
Shrubs (100-800 cm)
- Ash maple (Acer negundo 'Flamingo')
- Rocket juniper (Juniperus scopulorum 'Skyrocket')
- Spring cherry (Prunus 'Accolade')
- Cotinus coggygria
Subshrubs (up to 100 cm)
- Beardflower (Caryopteris x clandonensis)
- Ivory gorse (Cytissus x praecox)
- Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
- Dwarf Sparrow (Spierea japonica)
Ornamental grasses
- Beardgrass (Andropogon scoparius)
- Miscanthus sinensis
- Pennisetum alopecuroides
- Heron feather grass (Stipa pulcherrima)
Flowers next to stones and gravel
Perennials
- Coneflower (Echinacea)
- Sedum (Sedum telephium)
- Pearl Basket (Anaphalis)
- Storksbill (Geranium)
bulb flowers
- Imperial Crown (Fritillaria imperialis)
- Tulips (Tulpia)
- Steppe candle (Eremurus)
- Ball garlic (Allium)
So that stones and gravel are not overgrown by weeds, simply lay a weed fleece as a base (€19.00 at Amazon). Where trees and perennials are to thrive, open the cover with a cross-shaped cut.
Tip
When the summer sun puts you in a headlock on the south-facing terrace, a shady seat in the small corner of the garden invites you to linger. A floor covering made of light gravel also reflects sun rays that sneak through the tree canopy.
