How I Created a Landscape With Natural Stone
Types of Stone and Choices

Creating a landscape with natural stone is not always easy if you want everything to go well together.

The project had landscape retaining walls in various areas of the project, pool paving, a walkway, and landscape steps. In addition, to make things more challenging, the house was brick. Luckily, the brick had interesting colors running through it which I could pick up on with the stone colors.

See more about this project below.

Or go directly to more information on stone choices.

Retaining Walls

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Pool Paving

The first of the stone landscaping choices to be made was regarding the pool paving.

Travertine pavers were chosen.

Not only are they beautiful, but also cool on your feet, which is important for swimming pool paving.
The travertine pavers were a carmel color, which had darker and lighter tones.
It looked great with the brick and existing concrete aggregate walkway, which was in the same color tones.
We used a pattern of mixed sizes.

The Stone Walls and Steps

The stone selection for the retaining walls was the next step. The walls ranged in size from 18" to 36" high. Therefore, I knew I wanted somewhat of a larger stone size. I also decided to mix some boulders into the wall as I love this look.

Upon visiting the stone yard, I found a stone that was perfect. It was gray with tans mixed in it. There was to be a waterfall at the pool with large boulders, so the gray would look good with this and also complimented the travertine color. The tan picked up on the travertine so that everything blended nicely.

The same stone was used for the risers of the steps. One continuous piece of bluestone was used for each tread. The bluestone looked nice with the gray of the stone and also with the travertine.

Along the side of the house was an area to be leveled out for a batting cage for the boys.

This required two retaining walls, but since it was not very visual and also a functional area, I felt it was unnecessary to landscape with natural stone here due to the cost. So I chose a Versa-Lok wall which is colored concrete blocks. However the blocks are different sizes so as to mimic stone. This was the Mosaic pattern and the color was Chestnut Blend. Once again the block was gray with tan running through it.

Summary

To summarize this landscape with natural stone...

Pool paving was travertine pavers in the Manchester (tan) color.

Mountaineer stone was used for the landscape retaining walls (gray and tan).

Mountaineer stone for the risers of the landscape steps with bluestone treads.

Versa-Lok Mosaic concrete wall block in Chestnut Blend for the functional walls on the side of the property.

This was a lot of work....but looks great.

So take your time in choosing and coordinating when landscaping with stones. Bring samples to your project to make sure colors and textures look well together. Hold the various landscape stones next to each other to make sure you like the combinations.