There are a number of reasons to choose gravel for your garden: the satisfying crunch it makes underfoot, its relative low cost compared with other hardscaping materials, the environmental benefit of preventing runoff and erosion, and the fact that it looks good with almost any landscape style.
But with a huge range of stone types, colors, sizes and textures available, it can be tough to decide on a gravel for your application. A landscape professional can help you find the best gravel for your yard. To help guide the decision process, let’s get into some of the nitty-gritty details of gravel, including profiles of some top materials.
June Scott Design
Getting Started
First, we’ll walk you through seven questions that will help you decide on the best type of gravel for your garden. Then, we’ll go into the material details of four common types of gravel: pea gravel, crushed rock, decomposed granite and path fines, as well as drain rock.
debora carl landscape design
7 Questions to Help You Pick the Right Gravel
1. How do you want to use the gravel? Before you pick out a gravel based on its looks, consider where you’d like to use it in your landscape and how you’d like the material to behave. Some gravels (like pea gravel) “roll” underfoot, while others compact to form a more stable surface, making it easier to roll a stroller or wheelchair across a gravel patio.
If you’re mixing gravel with steppingstones, options with either small particle sizes (like decomposed granite) or larger stones (like river rock) are less likely to travel up onto the pavers.
Spring Greenworks LLC
2. What’s your budget? The cost of gravel varies by type of rock and size of stone, as well as what is available in each region. Often going with a local gravel or one that’s widely available in your area can cut down on cost.
In general, gravel is either sold by the bag (fill it yourself at a landscape supply store), in bulk by the cubic yard (roughly the amount to fill a standard pickup truck) or by the ton.
Discuss your outdoor project with a landscape designer on Houzz
Westover Landscape Design
Cost-saving tip: One way to keep costs down is to use gravel and stone local to your region. You’ll save on the cost of trucking in gravel from another region and you’ll use a material that naturally occurs in your area, making a design feel more connected to the site.
For example, in this Northeast front yard, the designer used a local washed gravel made from crushed bluestone to create a small satellite patio intersected by a flagstone path of Pennsylvania fieldstone. Swing by your garden store and ask which stones are local.
6 Ways You Can Save on Your Garden Renovation
Polhemus Savery DaSilva
3. Do you need to accommodate wheels? If you’d like to use gravel in an application that receives regular wheel traffic, choose a type that is less prone to rolling underfoot or getting stuck in wheels, and make sure the gravel is properly installed on a compacted base. This includes gravel used for driveways or pathways and patios that you’d like to make safe for wheelchairs, strollers, walkers and wheelbarrows.
For any wheel-friendly application, choose a gravel that is either very fine (like decomposed granite or path fines) or one that has a large particle size (like crushed rock or drain rock) that locks in place. Gravel should be installed on a compacted base rock and thoroughly tamped down between layers, and it can be covered with a binding product to lock the path fines or stones in place.
Hire a skilled landscape contractor to make sure the installation is done well — this will make a big difference in ensuring that a surface is safe for wheels.
Bliss Garden Design, LLC
4. Are you planning to mix gravel with pavers? If you’re choosing a gravel to go with flagstones, select a color that coordinates with the pavers and a size and texture of gravel that won’t travel up onto them. Decomposed granite and path fines work well because they compact and are fine enough that it doesn’t matter if a few grains of sand are underfoot on the pavers.
Large, chunky gravels have weight to their advantage: Gravity is more likely to keep them in place. If you’re choosing a small- to medium-sized gravel (in the size range of one-eighth to three-eighths inch), opt for a crushed gravel rather than rounded pea gravel. The sharp edges of crushed gravel help with locking and reducing traveling.
Installation tip: To reduce gravel traveling onto pavers, first install a layer of compacted base rock, then lay down a top layer of gravel and flagstones, positioning flagstones so they are slightly above the gravel. Adding a binding product (washed over the top) after installing the pathway can also help lock gravel in place.
Learn more about mixing pavers and gravel
Bliss Garden Design, LLC
5. Are you concerned with gravel tracking into the house? Save your hardwood floors by choosing a gravel type that will be less likely to track inside. Do a quick shoe test: Flip over your shoe and check out the size of the treads. Any piece of gravel that is the same size or smaller than the treads on a common shoe can be picked up, lodged in the sole and tracked into the house.
Large-particle gravels, like one-half inch and larger crushed rock and drain rock, have gravity and size to their advantage and will be much less likely to track into the house than decomposed granite, pea gravel and any gravel particle less than one-half inch across. Crushed rock also locks in place if properly installed. As with gravel and paver walkways, you can also finish the gravel with a binding product to hold stones in place.
Taylor Tripp | Landscape Design
6. What color gravel will work well with your garden and existing hardscape? Color is another consideration when selecting the right gravel for your garden. Choose a gravel color that works with the other hardscape elements in your landscape, be they brick, stone or wood.
You can also use warm-toned gravels to visually warm and lighten a yard and act as a backdrop for lush green foliage and blue and purple flowers. Cool-toned gravels, like those made of crushed slate, make bright green leaves and pale blossoms stand out through contrast.
Land Architects, Inc.
7. Do you wish to use gravel as the primary ground cover for your garden? If you’re using gravel as a ground cover in a low-water garden or one with drainage issues, choose a type of gravel with good drainage that doesn’t compact. Pea gravel, crushed rock gravel, decomposed granite and path fines all work well for this use, as they don’t look too coarse and are easy to put a shovel through to dig a hole for a new shrub. If using decomposed granite or path fines in this application, buy it without a stabilizer.
Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio (JMMDS)
Types of Gravel
Pea gravel. Perhaps the most popular gravel type, pea gravel is useful for pathways, patios and as a ground cover. The stones are rounded and roughly pea-sized, from one-eighth to three-eighths inch across, and come in dark gray, medium gray, sand and caramel brown. Pea gravel is known for that delicious crunch sound underfoot, but the rounded pebbles do tend to roll as you walk, making it a poor choice for areas with wheel traffic.
Stride Studios
Brassfield limestone in a Cincinnati garden
Crushed rock. Unlike pea gravel, which has been tumbled to produce rounded edges, crushed rock typically features more jagged edges. These edges can be an advantage for helping the gravel compact and lock in place, reducing traveling and rolling underfoot. The gravel still crunches, but less so. Sizes typically range from one-eighth to three-eighths inch or larger, and it comes in many colors — including off-white, slate gray, reddish brown, tan and buff.
Margot Hartford Photography
Decomposed granite and path fines. Decomposed granite and other decomposed rocks, often sold as “path fines,” have the smallest particle sizes. They range from sand-size grains to one-eighth-inch particles and form a compact, stable surface, appropriate for rolling anything with wheels. Colors range from warm, dusty tans to dark slate, red-brown and bluish tones.
The material works well for covering pathways, patios, driveways or as a ground cover in low-water gardens. Given that the small particles become compacted, patios covered in decomposed granite and path fines don’t drain as well as those covered in larger gravel.
Note: The small particles can collect in wheels or shoe treads and track inside homes.
B. Jane Gardens
Decomposed granite and path fines are often sold either as “natural” or as “stabilized” (mixed with a binding agent). The stabilized option can cost up to 50 percent more, but the expense is worth it if you want to create a stable pathway or patio.
Stone Bridge Homes NW
Drain rock. Drain rock and other chunky crushed gravels over three-quarters inch are useful in areas where you want quick drainage, such as in French drains, driveways or around raised beds. As with other crushed rock, the jagged edges help the gravel lock together to form a stable surface, but the gaps between stones allow water to easily flow through. Drain rock and other types of large crushed gravel can be found in light and dark gray and sandy tones, as well as reddish browns.
Note: Drain rock is different from — but easily confused with — base rock. Base rock is a recycled product composed of three-quarters-inch crushed concrete mixed with rock fines and is used underneath foundations, pathways, patios and driveways, not generally as a finishing material.
debora carl landscape design
Tell us: Have you used gravel in your garden? Show us in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Ideas for Contemporary Garden Paths
Key Measurements for Designing Your Perfect Patio
Find a landscape contractor in your area
Shop for outdoor products
