What is specialty decorative rock?

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Typically, when you think about landscape rock you think of massive applications like shoring river banks with rip rap, crushed rock on the grounds of a property, and others.

However, there are many other applications which are usually smaller, which you could consider as ‘specialty’ applications of decorative rock.

Examples of Specialty Decorative Rock

Boulders

Boulders can be used in large numbers as riprap, or they can be used singly as a decorative focal point in a landscape. Landscapes are often flat and lacking interest, so a well-placed boulder adds dimension and catches the eye. And it goes without saying that because it is stone it does not require watering, so there is no maintenance concern like there would be if you had planted a tree or shrubbery.  

Masonry walls

Another way to add dimension, height, and interest to your landscape is by creating walls, be it masonry walls or retaining walls. You can tame a slopped space and end up creating more usable space than you had before with retaining walls. Or you can just use a masonry wall to separate out certain areas of your landscape, providing definition, when you have to have sections separate from the rest.

House siding

There is nothing quite as beautiful, classic, and sophisticated than a home with a stone facade. This is a great example of an application of rock which is decorative.

Mulch or grass replacement

Sometimes you have a lawn, or flower bed, or mulched area and due to design issues or their demand on water you want to swap things out for a lower maintenance and lower ecological impact solution. Because of the wide variety of colors available decorative rock is perfect for use in design. Just because it is ‘rock’ doesn’t mean it has to be boring! Check out the colors we have available in our catalog. We’re pretty sure you’ll see colors of rock you never thought existed!

Rock gardens

Another great specialty application is the rock garden. While they are popular in Japan (and part of their culture), you don’t see these very often in the US, but they are becoming more and more mainstream. ‘Rivers’ of crushed rock, surrounded by ‘shores’ of different color & sized crushed rock, punctuated with the occasional boulder, and low-water native plant creates a very clean and tranquil space.

Water features

If you’ve ever seen a man-made waterfall on a property that comes out of a mass of stone, then you know what we’re talking about here. Applications can be small, for a home’s back yard, or larger for a hotel, casino, public space. It’s hard to have a water feature and NOT have some sort of stone component, whether it is a shoring border for a backyard river/pond, or stone for the encasement of a fountain.

Lights

This is one of our personal favorites for decorative rock. We use boulders (of whatever size is appropriate), and then holes are drilled in, creating a recess, where lights will be inserted, thus making the boulder into a ‘lamp’ so to speak, but being completely unobtrusive visually, since it is just a boulder and blends naturally into your landscape without breaking the ‘organic’ atmosphere.

Where should you get YOUR decorative landscape rock?

At Kalamazoo we have a wide selection of rock for your landscaping needs. Check out our catalogs, we’re confident we have the size and color that you need, no matter what type of project you have!