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.
Making crafts with your child
But what to do when it’s winter outside, the summer joys of the country are forgotten, and yet at home there are a bunch of cute stones lying around that you just want to put somewhere! Try doing handicrafts with your child. This exciting activity will not only diversify the long winter evenings, but will also leave you with wonderful souvenirs, one look at which will lift your spirits.
What kind of crafts can you come up with from sea stones? Yes, the most diverse! The list of ideas is almost endless! For example, you can make a gnome or even a whole family of gnomes (or gnomes). If you do them in the same style, then on New Year’s Eve you can wonderfully decorate your apartment by placing the figures in the corners, under the tree, on bookshelves, etc.
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.
Description of pebbles
This mineral is a rock of predominantly sedimentary or igneous origin. The deeper it lies, the stronger it is. The color variety of varieties of this stone is quite large. The most common colors are grey, light grey, dark blue, white and red. It is often fashionable to find specimens with variegated colors. The shape is most often flat elliptical, the texture is smooth.
Specimens consisting of homogeneous coarse-crystalline rocks have an almost ideal shape, while igneous fine-crystalline or metamorphic rocks have a rounded shape alternating with convexities and depressions. The thickness of the stone directly depends on the strength of the original rock and the intensity of the water flow.
Since pebbles are one of the varieties of cobblestones, which have a small size and a unique shape compared to the latter, their physical and mechanical properties are very similar. Thus, the frost resistance of this mineral varies between F150-F300, density - 2500-2700 kg/m3, water absorption - 0.2 to 0.6% of the total mass.
The most important advantages of this natural stone are its durability, high strength, environmental friendliness and resistance to adverse environmental influences.
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.
