Table of contents
- Natural stone ennobles every border
- sandstone
- travertine
- granite
- limestone
- Concrete stone - modern flair for the garden bed
- Old bricks create a rustic atmosphere
The selection of suitable stones for the bed border is one of the supreme disciplines in stylish garden design. In contrast to the arrangement of short-lived plants on the bed surface, the design of a stone border leaves little room for experimentation. This guide invites you into the multifaceted world of the best types and shapes for a successful stone border that integrates harmoniously into your garden.
Natural stone ennobles every border
Natural stone undoubtedly lives up to its reputation as a premium solution for tasteful bed edging. So that the bordered perennials and flowers can assert themselves against the massive presence of natural stone, subtle stone colors are in vogue, such as grey, ivory, terracotta or soft red. The most popular types of natural stone with their individual advantages as a representative bed border are presented to you in more detail below:
sandstone
Sandstone scores with light natural tones that harmonize perfectly with colorful flowering bedding plants. The natural stone is mainly composed of grains of sand, which results in a large-pored surface and a natural look. The comparatively soft structure makes it easier to work with, so that sandstone is recommended as a building block for a dry stone wall as a border for beds.
Advantages
- inexpensive
- easy editing
- good break resistance
- numerous shades
Disadvantages
- conditional frost resistance
- requires impregnation
- comparatively high abrasion
travertine
Travertine is assigned to the soft sedimentary rocks, so that the natural stone is very easy to work with. Its color spectrum ranges from subtle yellow and brown tones to bright red and plain white and black. At first glance, travertine looks confusingly similar to high-quality marble. The pronounced versatility makes travertine one of the most sought-after natural stones for the imaginative framing of flower and vegetable beds.
Advantages
- inexpensive
- easy to edit
- frost resistant
- weather resistant
- easy-care
Disadvantages
- acid sensitive
- fading color
- prone to algae growth
Tip:
The amazing similarity between travertine and marble is accompanied by a high risk of confusion. The trade name Antique Marble does not mean real marble. In fact, it is simple travertine stone that has undergone a special surface treatment.
granite
With granite, you decide on the hardest natural stone par excellence and thus create a bed edging for eternity. As an igneous rock, granite leaves nothing to be desired in terms of color variety and processing properties. In the form of curbs or slats, the noble hard stone decoratively delimits low beds and unobtrusively bridges small height differences within the bed area. With inimitable elegance, the valuable natural stone frames a raised vegetable or flower bed as a palisade. In this version, even larger terrain differences are perfectly compensated.
Advantages
- unsurpassed hardness
- heat resistant
- color stable
- completely frost-resistant
- shatterproof
- scratch resistant
- insensitive to moisture
Disadvantages
- expensive
- high weight causes high transport costs
- unprocessed quarry stones with sharp edges
limestone
Limestone is essentially composed of the sediments of microorganisms and is therefore one of the soft rocks. The best-known deposits in Central Europe are in the French and Swiss Jura and in the Alps. Thanks to its yellow-beige coloring, Jura limestone plays a key role in Mediterranean garden design, not least as an authentic bed border. The modern garden style uses the light limestone as a suitable filling for gabions to frame raised beds. Red and green limestone are becoming increasingly popular when it comes to creating dry stone walls as a natural bed border in country house or cottage gardens.
Advantages
- inexpensive
- frost resistant
- easy to edit and lay
- excellent strength and color fastness
Disadvantages
- conditionally weatherproof
- sensitive to de-icing salt (danger of stains)
You can't go wrong with a bed edging made of natural stone. The diverse stone types offer creative solutions for the modern, Mediterranean, rustic and elegant look, suitable for every budget.
Concrete stone - modern flair for the garden bed
Concrete blocks bring practical aspects to the fore, such as the accurate mowing edge between the lawn and the flower bed. Thanks to the variety of shapes and colors, the aesthetic factor does not fall by the wayside when it comes to solutions. Furthermore, stones made of concrete are very popular in modern garden design and are inexpensive to purchase. Home gardeners who lay a bed edging made of stone themselves appreciate the exact dimensions of concrete blocks, because here every element fits centimetres. Strictly geometric bed contours, such as in the true-to-original Japanese garden, are child's play thanks to concrete blocks, even for the inexperienced hand. We have compiled the most popular options for a creative concrete block border for you below:
- Lawn edging stone with rounded top for clear separation of lawn and bed
- Corner stones matching lawn edging stones for the geometric border of beds in the middle of a lawn
- Mowing edging stones in a semi-circular shape for curved and round bed edgings next to and in the lawn
- Concrete palisade with a wood look for a permanent border with a natural look
- Earth-colored concrete blocks in a shingle profile as a decorative frame design for Mediterranean beds
Concrete blocks in palisade form are available in countless dimensions, colors and design variants. The box office hits include slim, round palisades in elegant gray, closely followed by wide, wavy beveled shapes with a smooth surface in subtle anthracite. As a cost-effective alternative to natural stone, concrete blocks are useful for the low dry stone wall as a bed border. Modern production methods have succeeded in giving the concrete blocks a natural appearance, as if they came straight from the quarry. Shades such as shell limestone or granite brown make the legitimate deception maneuver perfect.
Tip:
Are you struggling with regular waterlogging in perennial and vegetable beds? Then concrete blocks offer an effective and decorative solution to the problem. By enclosing the waterlogged bed with trough stones up to 100 mm deep, excess rainwater is reliably drained away.
Old bricks create a rustic atmosphere
With a bed border made of old bricks or bricks trimmed with antiques, you can turn back time in garden design. You can buy disused bricks from demolition companies for little money. The demand for old bricks has increased so rapidly that specialist companies have specialized in sales and offer pre-cleaned antique goods of the highest quality. With a small bed of mortar as a foundation, there are no limits to your imagination when designing the border. Friends of clear structures lay the stones in a rectangular or square shape. Gardeners with a penchant for more variety lay the bricks as vertical runners with a slight incline of 10 to 15 degrees, so that a conspicuous jagged crown is formed.
If you interpret bricks as roof tiles, an original variant for a bed border made of stone opens up. Old beavertail roof tiles form a stable border for flower and vegetable beds, beyond conventional design options. Set side by side in a narrow ditch with a mortar foundation, give the disused roof tiles enough stability to withstand the pressure of the bed soil. At a purchase price of 50 cents per handpicked piece, the limited durability of the rustic alternative to natural stone and concrete is acceptable.
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