Stone Me

A cheap and easy way to give your garden a designed look is by using cobbles and pebbles as a feature. Design Top Tips Fill wire gabions with stones to create decorative seats, or to make stylish looking planters. Piles of pretty rocks or stones nestled between planting like mini-cairns can be quite effective. Remove individual slabs in a patio, or boards in a deck, and fill with stones for an unusual feature. Use a layer of cobbles or beach pebbles as mulch for your planting beds or as a dressing to make your planters and pots look their best. Stones also make a great filler for decorative alcoves in timber screens, as you can see in the picture on the left, and work well as a dressing to a hide the ugly plastic reservoir that comes with many off-the-shelf water features. And of course a cobbled pathway will add a rustic charm to a cottage style garden design.

Always make sure your stones are responsibly sourced and don’t go taking bag loads of pebbles from your local beach – this could contribute to coastal erosion and may well get you into trouble with the local authority or beach owner…