Stone lends a timeless beauty and feeling of permanence to the landscape. It also serves as the foundation from which the rest of the landscape is built. Functionally, stone can be used to create walls, patios, pathways, or stairways. Stone can also be used decoratively to draw the eye to a particular place in the garden.

Types of landscape stone include flagstone, building stone, ground covers, and columns. Flagstone is an excellent material for patios and pathways. Building stone creates beautiful walls, borders, and planters. Ground cover is a popular material for flower beds, water features, and pathways. Columns and boulders can be used decoratively as water bubblers, vertical points of interest, or as a backdrop for foliage.

Stone provides a dramatically tranquil setting in this Japanese garden in Bellevue, Washington. The charm of this city refuge was created by blending windswept moss boulders with the right plant materials to provide visitors with a peaceful stroll along a crushed basalt pathway that meanders through the garden.

Stone walls, whether curved or straight, are constructed from building stone, which varies widely by geographical availability and preference. The array of stone choices for building a wall in the Pacific Northwest is extensive. Some of the best choices include the following:

• Seaside Antique from Seaside, Oregon, a beautiful black

and bronze contrasting basalt stone.

• Alpine Granite from central Washington, reminiscent of

alpine chalets and mountain ski lodges.

• Columbia River Basalt from central Washington and Oregon

has a consistent color and workability that has become a

favorite of Oregon and Washington masons

•Windswept from southwest Washington, a natural

tumbled gray-brown rock that has a weathered look.

•Montana building stone, a red and brown earth tone

stone, that has lichen, a flowerless plant growing flat on

the stone, lending it an aged quality.

Changing the Face of Stone

There are many fabrication techniques that can alter the appearance of these building stones. These techniques include: tumbling the stone to give the edges a smooth surface, custom cutting to exact specifications, and splitting the stone. One technique in custom cutting is a process called guillotine splitting. Jerry Cates, President of Interstate Rock Products in Vancouver, Washington explained, “Splitting the stone with a guillotine allows us to snap the stone with very precise results and make the face of the stone look natural.”

Flagstones, used to create patios, pathways, or stairways, range in style from elegant slate and granite to vibrant sandstones with sparkling or metallic highlights. A flagstone surface requires little maintenance and has amazing durability. For example, stone patios are longer lasting than wood decks with a fraction of the maintenance. Flagstone can also extend your landscape design indoors by providing an excellent flooring choice for entryways.

Choosing the right flagstone for your project may depend on many factors, including how the stone will be installed, what will surround the stone, personal color and surface preferences, and weather. For example, if the stone is going to be mortared, the thickness requirements would be less than if the stone is to be dry laid. Cates recommended, "If a stone is to be dry laid, the minimum thickness of the stone should be 1-11/2 inches to keep the stone from snapping as it is walked on. If the weight of the load the stone will bear is greater than everyday walking traffic, the thickness of the stone must be greater to adjust."

Geography Counts

Some interesting stone focal points can include boulders used decoratively as vertical points of interest. Boulders can serve as a backdrop for foliage or for a stand alone feature.

Weather can also be a factor in choosing stone. "In hot southwest climates, flagstone tends to be light in color to prevent burning bare feet and to keep the landscape surrounding a structure as cool as possible. Also, in the southwest, stone does not have the temperature variations and weather erosion of other climates so the stone does not have lamination erosion to consider making sandstone an excellent choice. In the pacific northwest where rain is a constant factor, the surface of the stone should be more abrasive to prevent slipping during the wet season," said Cates.

The use of large stone pieces surrounded by healthy plant material cab provide a striking element to any design. While the use of smaller stone pieces is another way to naturally blend stone with various plant material.

The look of the stone used to create a patio, pathway, or stairway, is often simply personal preference driven by local availability. The range of choices is unlimited and includes Iron Mountain from Newport, Washington, which has an exceptionally high iron content that forms a dramatic patina of rusts, coppers, and reds on a mostly blue-black stone. Its neutral colors help to integrate it into a natural landscape or building project. Variegated Bluestone from Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York has a blue-green color that blends to patches of lavender, giving the stone a strong earthy tone with widespread popularity throughout the United States. Mica from Utah and Idaho has particles of quartz that make it sparkle in the sunlight. It is available in white, gold, silver, and green. Rosewood is a reddish-pink Arizona sandstone that makes patios warm and beautiful. Indian Granite from India is the most durable of all the flagstones. It is available in pink or salt and pepper.

Pathway to Style

Stairways can be constructed using various sizes of flagstone, or thick slabs of stone. Award winning mason, Edward Lockett, owner of Star Masonry, chooses his stone depending on what style or look the architect or owner wants to portray. "More often than not, I prefer to use full thickness pieces of stone for steps as opposed to running a veneer riser and veneer tread because if it is not done extremely well, you see a lot of mortar and it looks like it is stuck on." Lockett contends, "stone should appear to be carved and have a lot of thickness. On the exterior landscape, if budget allows, I like to use full thickness."

Stone patios and pathways add a spectacular look to any landscape application. The natural look that stone offers can be easily mixed in with manufactured site amenities such as benches or tables. Stone pathways can help designers accentuate specific focal points in the landscape while providing a relatively low maintenance surface.

As a general rule, steps can be seven or seven and a half inches thick. With the texture and roughness of stone, reducing the steps to six inches makes them an easier height to climb. To prevent slipping on stone steps, Lockett puts a pitch on the front of the step so that the water runs off easily.

Scale is also important in selecting stone. For instance, a small garden path in a residential application would require a stone two feet wide. However, if the application is in an entryway where two people may walk side by side, four feet is a preferable width. Placement of stone is also crucial when adding a pathway. The stepping stones should be placed at a distance that allows for a comfortable natural walking stride.

When choosing which stone to use, Lockett considers the height differences on the surface of the stone with a quarter of an inch variance as his limit. It is important Lockett says to "not limit yourself to what is available at the local stone yard. You can buy materials from other states as economically as the local material." Lockett's favorite stone in the northwest for steps and for patios is basalt for durability. Basalt does not flake or break easily and the surface prevents slipping. The color of basalt blends in because it is neutral and warm brown or gray.

Lockett's second choice is variegated slate because of the diverse color range from green to brown to plum. Slate comes in a myriad of colors with a thickness range from a half inch to five feet. The surface is textured like a sandstone providing prevention for slipping and light is reflected pleasantly because there is not a large amount of glare.

Lastly, Lockett says "a very nice pathway stone and stepping stone with natural elements and warm colors is Iron Mountain. I like the availability of the sizes and colors and the cost is reasonable for stone."

An island is created when boulders are set in a sea of green foliage and flowers . Choosing the right foliage enhances the beauty of a boulder garden. Favorites in the Northwest include zebra grass, Japanese sedge grass, a 12 to 18 inch tall evergreen with gold foliage, burning bush for intense fall color, kinnikinnick, geranium sanguineum, a low grower with summer-long blooms, blue rug juniper, and cotoneaster dammeri.

Pathways can also be created using crushed rock in a rainbow of colors from purple to green. The colors stand out and provide an excellent walking surface when compacted. Crushed rock provides an alternative to red lava rock and white marble in flowerbeds. The statement made with crushed rock in the landscape can be dramatic or understated depending on the results desired.

Stone offers a versatility and variety that is not matched by other materials. The durability and permanence of stone makes it an excellent choice in landscaping. The next time you are working on a project that uses stone, take a look around the country to see what is available in other regions, then ask your local stone yard to acquire the stone you are looking for. According to Cates, "The availability of stone quarried locally, nationally, and globally is incredible."

Sandi Gajkowski is a freelance writer working in Vancouver, WA. Her clients include Interstate Rock Products and Star Masonry.