“Come home from land, with stone in hand,” said Thomas Tusser, a 16th-century farmer and poet best known for his collection of rhymed agricultural advice, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. In his time, clearing stones from fields wasn’t just about making the land arable, it was about transforming an obstacle into a resource. Each stone, carried home in a pocket or cart, become the building blocks of walls and pathways.
Tusser’s advice came to mind when I began dreaming up a landscape design for our rural home. But choosing the right stone—and knowing how to use it—would require more than just a keen eye and a few cottage guests pressed into service. I had questions. Granite or limestone? Flagstone or pavers? Dry-stack or mortar walls? So, I turned to present-day stone experts for guidance.
When choosing landscaping stone, industry pros recommend looking no further than your own backyard. “I like it when the stone is as local as possible because it reflects the landscape you’re in,” says Karen Landman, a retired professor of landscape architecture at the University of Guelph. This likely means granite and basalt if you’re on the West Coast, limestone in southern Ontario, granite on the Canadian Shield, and slate or granite in Nova Scotia.
“People get all excited about importing,” says Jordan Ward, the owner and CEO at Creative Landscape Depot, a supplier with locations in St. Jacobs, Cambridge, and Guelph, Ont., often because it comes with the association that the stone is better or more valuable. “But it’s not. And it can stand out,” he says. “Colour patterns or tones extracted from other parts of the world won’t be what we are familiar with in our own backyards.”
Imported stone can cost half as much as domestic due to lower labour costs abroad. But this apparent bargain comes with a significant environmental impact. “The quarrying, transport, and handling of stone produces greenhouse gases,” says Landman. She advises to limit those impacts.
Crushed Stone
WHAT IT IS: Small stones of varying sizes, with or without fine (a.k.a. very small stone particles).
BEST FOR: This stone can form the base for a cottage patio or driveway. Gravel wasn’t the first thing that came to mind when I envisioned our backyard oasis, but as JP Bartle, a landscape design technologist at Quiet Nature in Ayr, Ont., says, landscapes are built from the ground up. Crushed stone provides an unseen but essential base for patios, walkways, and retaining walls. Each type serves a specific purpose:
Granular A Gravel: A compactable mix of ¾-inch stone and sand fines. “It’s considered non-permeable,” says Bartle, but it drains better than soil.
Clear Stone or Crusher Run: Similar to Granular A, but without fines, making it a free-draining material “mostly used for backfilling on retaining walls because it creates a drainage layer behind your façade,” says Bartle.
Granular B Gravel: A mix of larger, 3- to 4-inch round stone, combined with ¾-inch gravel, and sand fines. It’s a cost-effective choice for building up grade.
Chip Stone or High-Performance Base (HPB): A fine ¼- to 3⁄8-inch crushed stone often used as the last inch of base for setting flagstones or pavers.
Choosing the right base material is crucial to managing drainage and preventing freeze-thaw cycles from causing the structure above to shift or crack. “It may come down to what you’re building on top of it and what your subsoils are,” says Bartle. Since drainage solutions can be highly location-specific, consulting an expert is a wise move if you’re uncertain.
Decorative Stone
WHAT IT IS: Small, visually appealing stones, such as river rock, lava rock, pebbles, and pea gravel.
BEST FOR: Decorative stones add colour, texture, and charm to a garden bed, or use them to line a path (white stones can stand out in darkness—helpful for middle-of-the-night trips to the outhouse). It also combines beauty with practical benefits, including mulching, erosion control, and drainage. It’s also a staple in xeriscaping, a lawn alternative that reduces chemical treatments and irrigation needs.
For best results, lay decorative aggregates over a compacted crushed rock base, particularly in pathways or high-traffic areas. Use a geotextile fabric layer—a permeable mat—to stop aggregate from mixing with the base layer, which can cause uneven surfaces and drainage issues. Edging materials, such as metal, plastic, or stone, can help maintain clean, defined borders.
While decorative aggregate requires minimal upkeep, occasional maintenance, such as clearing leafy debris or replenishing stone, may be necessary to keep it looking its best.
Flagstone
WHAT IT IS: Natural slabs of sedimentary rock, typically 1.5- to 3-inches-thick, available in square cut or “random” puzzle-like shapes.
BEST FOR: Use flagstone for rugged-looking patios and pathways that wrap around the cottage or lead to the bunkie. Flagstone shape impacts both aesthetics and cost. Square-cut flagstone, with its clean, uniform edges, may have a higher material cost because more processing went into making it, says Seth Rudin, the president of Muskoka Rock Company in Gravenhurst, Ont. But, “it should be faster for the landscaper to install.” In contrast, irregularly shaped random flagstones require more time and labour to fit together.
There are two installation methods: dry-laid and wet-laid. Dry-laid flagstones rest on a granular aggregate base. Wet-laid flagstones are secured with mortar on a concrete pad.
Consider how you’ll be using an area. Flagstone can be irregular in texture and potentially more likely to catch a snow shovel or the foot of a patio chair. If this is a concern, sand-blasted or sawn-top finishes—treatments that smooth and flatten the stone’s surface—offer a more even texture.
Dimensional Pavers
WHAT IT IS: Natural stone cut to a uniform size or made of manufactured materials, such as porcelain or precast concrete.
BEST FOR: Pavers can form modular pathways, patios, or a platform for outdoor entertaining. Interlocking precast pavers are molded from concrete with edges that “lock” together. They can be installed on a bed of Granular A Gravel and chip stone, with polymeric jointing sand swept in. Unlike concrete or asphalt, which is prone to cracking, interlocking precast pavers are “meant to move with the earth and settle back down after a thaw cycle,” says Bartle. Frost heave or erosion could cause them to become uneven depending on how the base work was done, he admits. “But if the base work was done properly, they should settle back into their intended location.” This makes them a great choice for cottage patios and pathways in regions that see sub-zero temperatures. They also tend to be less expensive than natural flagstones.
Compared with natural stone, manufactured pavers are less likely to chip or crack, and less likely to develop imperfections over time. This is because their manufacturing process is more consistent; they’re created in a factory—a controlled environment. With natural stone, “what you pull out of the earth is what you get,” says Bartle. Porcelain pavers, with their low porosity, will better resist staining from a spilled glass of wine or a decomposing leaf. “But they can also look a little strange,” says Ward—at least in a forested environment (like at the cottage).
Stone Slabs
WHAT IT IS: Step-like stones used to create pathways between elevations.
BEST FOR: Slabs work on slopes, whether leading down to the lakefront or up to a raised patio.
Stone steps come in irregular and uniform shapes. “When they’re irregularly shaped, they’re often referred to as steppers or just random treads natural stone steps,” says Ward. These stones retain their natural shapes and edges, offering a rustic, organic look.
Monolithic or dimensional steps are cut into rectangles with smooth finished tops, giving them a clean, uniform appearance.
Armour Stone
WHAT IT IS: Large, heavy, natural stone blocks, typically 2- to 4-feet-long. They can be irregularly shaped or “guillotined” into a more uniform rectangle.
BEST FOR: Use armour stone in rugged retaining walls, to divide properties, or to fix grade issues.
Armour stone is a staple of stone landscaping because of its size, simplicity, and strength. Ward highlights its practicality, explaining that a hundred-foot-long armour stone wall can be built with just 30 large stones. In contrast, a traditional method, which involves fitting “a million smaller stones together like a puzzle,” he says, could take longer to complete.
These massive stones don’t typically require a concrete foundation, although a gravel base is recommended.
Boulder, Rubble, Fieldstone
WHAT IT IS: Naturally shaped stones, often rounded or irregular, sourced from a farmer’s fields or quarry rubble.
BEST FOR: Natural boulders are ideal for rustic cottage garden walls with a timeless feel. The material for these walls is cheap, but it takes skill to make them beautiful and structurally sound. “The process is labour intensive,” says Bartle. Dry-stack walls are built by carefully fitting stones together, creating a free-draining system. “There’s no mortar; it’s just stone,” he explains. It’s a craft that dates back to antiquity and requires high levels of skill and artistry. There are just a handful of master craftsmen dry stone wallers in Canada, all of whom are certified by the Dry Stone Walling Association in the U.K.
Wet-laid walls use mortar to bind the stones together and are not free-draining. “Every time you retain, you have to make sure that water has an outlet so it doesn’t build up behind and create pressure,” says Ward. This may involve using corrugated drainage pipe and drainage stone placed behind the wall and outlets at the wall’s front to ensure water can escape.
I’m eager to see my landscaping vision take shape, but after speaking with the experts, I’m convinced that working with stone is not something to rush. This enduring material deserves to be thoughtfully sourced, placed, and maintained. The economical and practically minded Tusser would no doubt agree.
Fiona McGlynn is a regular contributor to Cottage Life magazine. Last year, she and her husband completed their net-zero, energy-ready home in northern B.C.
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