Decorative Stone
Spruce up your landscaping with decorative stone.
Let’s talk about decorative stone….
You notice it every day on your drive home. That perfect house with a manicured lawn, and beautiful ground cover stone. You think to yourself I could do that at my house. In your mind, you start to make plans. Have the stone delivered, shovel it around your house….but wait, your mind screeches to a halt! You start wondering the following: What type of decorative stone? What color decorative stone? How much decorative stone do I need? How do I prevent the weeds from growing through the decorative stone? How do I keep the decorative stone from spilling into my lawn? Relax, we have the answers!
The answer to this question rests largely in your taste and budget. At Hollow’s Landscape Supply, we have several color and price selections. The least expensive stones are Michigan Natural Stones. In other words, stones native of Michigan, southeast Michigan to be specific. The most popular of these is the 1 1/2″ Landscape Rock. This stone is also referred to as egg rock and river rock. It is a round, smooth, multi-colored stone. The dominant hue is steel gray, with pink, red, black, burgundy, and gold accents. This striking stone looks excellent in a variety of situations.
Exotic stones are much more colorful but a bit more costly than the Michigan natural stones. Color ranges are lavender, white, red, pink, gold, and much more. One of the most popular exotic stones is Inca Gold. This stone is also referred to as Merrimac or Walnut pebbles. The dominant hue is bright gold, with a little bit of white. Another popular stone is the Royal Gorge. This interesting stone is a mix of pink and white quartz with mica.
You will need to determine how many cubic yards you need. The formula is square feet times the depth divided by the cubic feet. This is not as complicated as it sounds. Square foot is length times the width. The depth is usually expressed in inches. You will need to turn the inches into a decimal. This is easily done by dividing by 12. For example, 3” is .25 ( 3 divided by 12). Most decorative stones are 1 inch or larger in size. Because of this, you should never use less than a 3” depth in your formula, even if you want a 2” coverage. You will end up with gaps in your coverage if not calculated correctly. Finally, the cubic feet to divide by is always 27, as there are 27 cubic feet in one cubic yard. Suppose you have an area 50′ long, 2′ feet wide, and a depth of 3”. You would need .93 or 1 cubic yard. 50 x 2 x .25 / 27 = .93.
Hollow’s Landscape Supply has project estimators on site. So you really do not have to do your own calculations. Simply call us or visit us with a drawing of your specifications and we will do the calculations for you.
How Do I Prevent the Weeds from Growing Through the Decorative Stone?
It is important that a weed block be placed on top of the ground before placing your stones. The weed block can be a plastic material. Or it can be a geotextile that allows the water to flow through to the ground and plants below.
The solution is an edging. A variety of edging is available at Hollow’s Landscape Supply. There is commercial grade black plastic edging and aluminum edging. Both are sold with stakes included, the plastic includes a connector as well.
The garden wallstone is a very popular edger. Garden wall is inexpensive and easy to install. If you prefer something more natural, almost any type of natural stone can be used. Bluestone veneer and Michigan Sandstone are popular natural stone edgers.
