How Does Your Stone Garden Grow?

Ever thought of creating a stone garden or adding natural stone to your landscape? There’s nothing more complementary to the foliage, vegetation, and blooms of a garden than natural stone. That’s why we’ve sat on stone park benches since time immortal. Those stone benches provide a sense of place and connect us to nature. The irregular, interesting shapes and colors of natural stone can also add charm, whimsy, or elegance to your garden.

Bill Schnetz, landscape contractor at Schnetz Landscape in San Diego recommends clients work with a team to help design both layout—hardscaping and placement of stone features—as well as selection of plants and trees. Schnetz and landscape architect Gary Stone, ASLA, of Stone Grove Landscape Architects in Solano Beach have collaborated together for more than 30 years.

It’s important to work with a quality team that can provide a stone garden you’ll love. Get referrals. Then see work that the architect and contractor have done to assure it aligns with your taste. Schnetz and Stone don’t have many requests for whimsical stone gardens but rather focus on elegant, organic, and timeless gardenscapes. “Everything we do in stone tends to be more Zen or more organic and naturally occurring,” says Schnetz.

How to Work with Landscape Architects and Contractors

Your landscape architect and/or contractor will meet with you repeatedly to identify your needs and preferences, and to view your site to understand exactly what you’re looking for. Schnetz had one client who asked for a succulent garden she had seen in a magazine, with dry stream beds and stone pathways. “I showed her picture books of succulent gardens and with every meeting she just looked at the stone work.” Turns out, she was more interested in Japanese style gardens with large boulders and other stones she could see from her bedroom window, not so much the succulents. Oftentimes clients aren’t quite sure what they want at first.

Read more at usenaturalstone.com