10 Benefits of Natural Stepping Stones in Garden
Mar 28, 2023
So you have created a beautiful garden with a variety of plants, shrubs, and trees. Moving on a green lustered grass with bare feet is a kind of therapy and healing your body, mind, & soul to a greater extent.
However, itis not true at all times. Your guest may dislike moving barefooted in a wet & muddy garden. It is most likely during rainy days, or you have sprinkled water in your garden just now.
I mean, a defined walkway or path may prove a great idea to protect your garden or yard from trampling feet. A track with stepping stones in your garden can guide your guests intuitively and in funny ways.
Of course, we have various options to construct and lay stepping stones for a path in the garden. However, I consider natural stone material as an excellent choice out of all. It is because I know some distinct advantages of natural stones for the construction of a stepping stone path in the garden.
So, I am going to describe at least ten benefits of natural stepping stones in the garden today.
1. It Requires Less Material to Construct a Natural Stepping Stone Path in the Garden or Patio
Have you marked ever that how we lay stepping stones? We leave a standard gap between two stepping stones on a path. It is known as the stride of an average adult human, and 18 inches is a standard around the world. Bear in mind that stride distance is from the center of one stone to the center of the next stone. It never is from an edge of a stone to the edge of the next stone.It ultimately reduces the total count of the stepping stone area and the number of natural stones needed to create a path against a filled or solid path.
2. No Need for Edge-To-Edge Leveling in Natural Stepping Stone Installation
You are leaving the stride gaps among the stones in a walkway. It means you need not to match stone surface level edge-to-edge. Instead, you can lay stones by following a slope in a particular direction to help in pursuing a water drainage plan for your garden. It makes the job easy for DIY enthusiastic.
3. Restricted Paver Base to Create Foundation in Natural Stepping Stone Installation
Structurally, stepping stones are a single unit when we think of a foundation or base to keep it stable against any lateral movement mainly, due to weight on the surfaces.
Therefore, in most cases, a thick layer of cement concrete or mortar is applied as a paver base. It gives strong bonds to bind stone at the top and mortal material at the bottom and act as a whole mass. It offers a firm grip to natural stone on the top and prohibits any lateral movement in any circumstances.
In a big scale project with a wide walkway, Quarry Aggregates or gravels are ideal and cost-effective material where a thin layer of sand is applied on the top of the paver base and just beneath the natural stone. Gravels and pebbles also used as side filler material to decorate the entire path with colored gravels.
4. Have Freedom to Design a Natural Stepping Stone Path Creatively
You can go creatively using natural stone for a stepping stone path/walkway in your garden.
- You can go with irregular shapes and sizes of natural stone pavers.
- You can use square or rectangular stone slabs for your stepping stone path.
- You can use a similar size or shape for natural stone slabs or create variation in it to make a decent layout in a mixed plate.
5. A Variety of Stone Types Available for Natural Stepping Stone Path in Your Garden
Natural rocks are abundant in nature and found in numerous categories. However, for exterior applications, siliceous rocks are the best choice thanks to their suitable properties for outdoor uses.
You can go for granite, sandstone, slate, and limestone types of natural stones available in irregular and regular shapes. Each stone type has some peculiarity, and you must consider those while in the selection.
Availability was a factor before, but today, most of the stone suppliers keep different varieties of siliceous and calcareous natural stones for various applications in the construction industry. World of Stone, USA, offers a wide range of selections for stone types, styles, patterns, textures, and colors.
6. You Can Create Beautiful Styles in Garden Path from Natural Stones
Imagination has no limit. Therefore, your garden designer or architecture can create a variety of designs, layouts, and beautiful styles to decorate your garden/landscape besides offering a great utility.
We can use variations in shapes & the size of the stones.
- Square or rectangular shapes in symmetric or asymmetric layouts.
- Spherical or irregular rounded shapes in paths.
- Background with natural land, pasture, gravel, or pebble filled.
- Straight, curved, zigzag, or mix styles of walkway or path.
These are common ways to decorate your garden paths or walkways.
7. Natural Stepping Stones Are Anti-Skid & Safe for Garden Walkway
We can treat natural stone surfaces in different ways by giving different finishes, honed, tumbled, and sandblast treatments to leave the texture of surfaces in natural forms. It ultimately renders the surface anti-skid or non-slip for wet day uses. Glossy or smooth finishing of stone surfaces is not advisable for external applications of natural stones. So, marbles are a less preferred material with glossy finishing.
8. Natural Stepping Stones Have Less Water Affinity So Good Material for a Garden Path
Water affinity or absorption capacity dramatically depends on the porosity of the stone material. Siliceous stones are less or almost non-porous due to the composition of sands and other minerals. Therefore, siliceous stones have a water absorption scale below 1%, and quartzite, as well as granite rocks, stand at the top of the list. Sandstones are more porous than others.However, calcareous stones contain calcium carbonate minerals, which are porous by nature and show some sort of water affinity. Therefore, marbles and some kinds of limestone rocks are not good candidates for stepping stones where the weather remains harsh during winter and rainy seasons.
Travertine has a different orientation. So, it is a suitable option for outdoor application despite being it calcareous stone type.
9. Natural Stepping Rocks Have High Flexural Strength So Sturdy Material for a Garden Path
All-natural stones are not sturdy and strong. Some are withstood against high flexural tests and prove right for exterior applications, including walkways, driveways, patios, and other garden-related applications.Quartzite, granite, and slate are the most substantial types of rocks because of their igneous orientation and structure. Whereas, marbles, limestone, and some sandstone types are fragile in nature and break easily with some strong strokes/hits. Therefore, stonemasons and landscape consultants avoid those materials to use in garden stepping stones.
However, travertine is a sturdy stone type, but due to cost factors, it is applicable in pool deck and patios like key points or places.
10 – Natural Stepping Stones Are Durable Material for Garden Path
Trees and waters will give you an amazing look with a stepping stone. We know the outer structure has to face the adversities of different climates and seasons accordingly. Some regions have snowy winters, some face frost for a few days only.Some regions have a long rainy season while some experience acute deficiencies during the entire year. Similarly, some areas of the world have mild to moderate Sun even during summer, whereas some have harsh heats.
These weather-related changes leave high impacts on the life of natural stones applied in exterior constructions. Fortunately, most of the stones can withstand decently against the weather adversities and experiencing low-level of wear & tear effects. Igneous rocks have superior performance compared to sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.
Therefore, siliceous natural stone materials, including granite, slates, quartzite, and sandstones, are proving excellent choices.
Conclusion
Natural stones can produce stepping stone material with desired properties, such as anti-skid, sturdy, unbreakable, durable, and gorgeous looking material. However, a dependable stone vendor can make a lot of difference in your garden path construction project.
Let me say how it could be. Free consulting, availability of colossal stone inventory, freedom to select stones of desired size, shapes, colors, and types are some immediate attractions. You can obtain your choice of patterns, textures, and styles to lay your stepping stone paths creatively.
