6 Natural Stone & Pebble projects for your home
Recently natural stone pebbles have become extremely popular in homes. This is because of their wide range of colours and versatile uses. We hope this article will inspire you and provide you with a few ideas on how and where you can use natural stone pebbles in your own home.
Japanese Gardens
Japanese Gardens are known for their peacefulness and tranquillity. Often, Japanese gardens are small in scale and rather than taking up the whole garden, they occupy a portion of the garden space. Specific style plants along with natural stones and water features create the Japanese effect.
Decorative Pots
This idea works well for indoor use. Placing some pebbles around the top of your potted plants can make the plant a lot more attractive. Combined with a decorative ceramic pot, you can make the whole plant the focal point. The pebbles and pot should help focus your eye on the plant.
Vases
Another indoor idea is using pebbles in the bottom of vases. Glass vases in particular look superb with some coloured natural stone in the bottom. The pebble base also helps hold the arranged flowers in place.
Paths and Drives
Covering your paths and drives with natural stones will reduce the maintenance you will need to carry out. Natural stones are a great way of slowing down weed growth and the ones that do surface tend to be easier to pluck and bin. The pebble size you choose needs for your paths and drives will be determined by how the path or drive will be used. Heavy car traffic or foot traffic areas need smaller stones as they are more comfortable underfoot and better for cars to drive over. Gravel drives and paths should have retaining edging to hold the stones in place. You will find that drives and paths need to be topped up with extra stones occasionally as they tend to go astray however a drive covered in stones are much nicer looking than an old concrete driveway.
Water Features
Garden water features are a very popular addition to a garden. Whether they are very small or large they add an element of tranquillity to any garden. When planning a water feature you should incorporate your natural stones in a variety of ways. Larger stones should be placed around the edge of the feature as this will add character. Pebbles should be used to cover the base of the water feature and also to cover up any cords or pumps that are used to power your water feature. Before you decide on what natural stone you want to use, remember to wet a sample as this will show you how the stones will look in your water feature. Natural stone is normally quite dusty when purchased. Removing the dust and gravel will reveal the real colour. It is sometimes a good idea to mix and match various sized stones for a more natural look.
Natural stone Mulch
Mulching involves adding a layer of material over your top soil in order to aid water retention. Natural pebbles or flint are great materials to use mulching. Mulching garden beds will also greatly reduce the amount of weeding that will need to be carried out. The few weeds that do make it to the surface will be easy to pull. As your plants mature and fill up the planting spaces there will be less room for weeds to grow.