Goin’ On a Landscape Stone Hunt…

Gonna catch a big one!

I’ve got rocks on the brain. No, not rocks for brains, although I’m sure there are people out there who think that’s a distinct possibility, I’ve been thinking about rocks. More specifically, I’ve been researching and thinking about the rocks and stones I’ll need to carryout my landscape design plan for the Garden Gone Wild this summer. Landscape stone had already been used in several areas at the farm.

For the purpose of continuity and to add visual interest to the garden beds at the front and side of the house, my landscape plan involves using more of that same stone.

Being that this blog is intended to be helpful to others, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned and run through the process I used to find the perfect landscape stone and stone supplier.

When a Rock isn’t a Rock

Some may think a rock is a rock, however that’s simply not the case. That would be like thinking a plant is a plant and we all know that’s not true! Before beginning this project I knew that there were different types of stone such as limestone, granite, marble, etc., but almost immediately after starting to research, I quickly came to realize that in reference to landscape stone there are tons of different names associated with the different varieties.

Outcropping

Weathered
Flagstone
Natural Stone
Holey Boulders

Slabs
Waterfall Stone

Sometimes I think the hardest part about a new learning curve is the terminology.

Isn’t Technology Wonderful?

The internet is the fastest and most efficient research tool. It will save you time, legwork and gas! Basic google searches into the different types of landscape stone available yielded far too much information to sift through in any reasonable amount of time, so to get to the information I needed, I had to narrow the playing field somewhat. I’m in Ontario, Canada, so my obvious starting point was to search the internet using the term ‘ontario landscape stone’. Substitute ‘ontario’ with the name of your province or state to begin your landscape stone supplier search.

Two of the results that came up on the first page looked promising.

1. An alphabetical listing of stone producers for Ontario. The listing included company names, contact information including email addresses and websites where available, and product information that outlined the stone type, stone name and the products produced by each company.
2. An alphabetical listing of stone processors for Ontario. Again the listing included company names, contact information and product information.

Narrow Your Stone Search - What is Key

The main concerns I had in finding a landscape stone supplier were:

• cost
• type of stone

Cost is always key. When dealing with something as heavy as landscape stone there are certain factors that can largely impact the bottom line.

Location, location, location. It’s about more than the placement of the stones in your landscape plan. Stones aren’t light, so unless you happen to have the heavy duty equipment required to pick it up yourself, you’ll be relying on that landscape stone supplier to deliver their product to your location. Look for a local supplier. The further away the delivery location, the higher the delivery charges.

Cut out the middlemen and the extra handling costs associated with them, by purchasing direct from the stone source if at all possible. Unfortunately, some landscape stone suppliers will only wholesale their products to the landscaping trade.

The tricky part - determining if a supplier carried the type of stone I wanted. Not a difficult task if everyone would use the same names, but as I had already discovered, names for landscaping stones changed from supplier to supplier and from geographic location to geographic location. Having a picture of what you are looking for is definitely worth a thousand words.

With these key considerations foremost in my mind I dug deeper into each of the two promising avenues.

From the alphabetical listings on both sites I compiled a list of potential supplier candidates based on their product descriptions and locations. With the hope of being able to view pictures of the landscape stones they carried, I only picked companies with websites.

Potential supplier list in hand, I started to visit the individual websites to see what they had to offer. The landscape terminology challenge raised its confusing little head again. as I discovered that the product description term ‘landscape stone’ referred to natural stone, landscape building stone used for walls, borders and patios, as well as decorative stone aggregates.

After viewing product pictures at a bunch of sites and crossing off numerous company names from my list, I came up with a small list of potential suppliers. Each was located relatively close to the project site and each carried the type of natural stone I was looking for.

Give Your Legs a Stretch

Let the legwork begin! Take your picture with you and go see potential suppliers in person.

One of the standouts from my small list was Kengrove near Caledon, Ontario. Aside from the fact that they carried what I wanted and were in a good location, what drew me to them was their great website. Okay, their rock product descriptions also appealed to my somewhat twisted sense of humor! The personal visit to their facility didn’t disappoint either. Even though they weren’t really open, they took the time to look at my landscape plan and answer my questions about delivery, cost and determining the quantity of landscape stone I would need. Good thing I had my boots with me because they also allowed me to slog through their yard to take a look at some of the different landscape stone they stocked.

I couldn’t resist taking this picture. Just look at those beautiful layers, lines and colors! Not what I was looking for, but too pretty not to share.

Going through the whole search process was worth it to find this one supplier of landscape stone. As a result of the search process I have learned valuable information about landscape stone and I know that as the project at the Garden Gone Wild progresses I’ll continue to pick up tips and ideas that I can pass along. Can’t wait for Skidsteer Driver Training!