"Garden Stones - in their proper place"

Garden stones don't have to be a nuisance. When you dig over your plot and take out the larger ones, pile them on one side and use them in a feature in your garden. Rockeries can be enhanced with small piles of pebbles or decorative stones.

And spreading a fairly thick layer of decorative hardcore around your plants in a herb or shrub patch will not only look great but will help with stubborn weeds, slug problems and even drainage. Decide on a theme for your decorative patch. It doesn't have to be a grand scheme. Something simple like half a dozen shrubs that all produce blue flowers, or a mixture of herbal shrubs that last many years. The stones spread around the plants really cut down on maintenance work and time.

Gardens have become places to decorate in recent years, and although it's important to have the practical side of your garden in order, a lot of imagination can be put into a decor that you can live with!

Statues,large pots and containers can be incorporated into a garden easily and the effect is wonderful.

Research different plants that prefer to live on stone walls, rockeries and other areas where soil is of a minimum, and incorporate these into your feature.

Thompson and Morgan supply a range of rock loving flowers and plants


Flowers for garden stones UK

In the US, you can find the above collection and much more...Thompson and Morgan US

For all other countries start from their homepage: Thompson and Morgan Global

Garden stones were played with many years ago. The popular game known as jacks in some places, but many names are possible. The player throws up a small stone and tries to pick up a number from the ground before he catches the stone he threw. Fascinatingly complex :-) but very entertaining.

I have found many frogs sheltering from the sun behind piles of stones. Leave a few piles around the garden - Frogs should always be encouraged to a garden. They are an effective slug repellant! They tend to be fairly friendly and will often look at you directly when discovered before leaping off to find another shelter. A good reason to have a few piles of stones around.

Slow worms are also fond of sheltered spots from the sun, although if you live in an area where there could be snakes in your garden, be careful not to encourage the creatures you don't want.

So to sum up, you can play with them, build animal shelters with them, create wonderful garden works of art with them, use them as drainage -in pots as well as outside, and children love them. Give the kids a job to find two flat garden stones exactly the same and they'll find plenty of entertainment you had long forgotten about!

Happy Gardening!

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