Stone has been a favored building material for thousands of years. You only have to look at ancient ruins across the world to see that builders used the material for castles, temples, and fortresses. However, stone is also a prized landscaping material, one that can feature a surprising amount of style just in the way the stones interact with each other and landscaping elements.

Learn more about the different styles of natural stone walkways.

Mortared or Unmortared Stone Pavers

Pavers can come in different materials, but their purpose is to create a regular walking surface. Fabricators can use different stones, such as bluestone or sandstone, as the basis of their pavers. To ready the stones for the pavement, they cut them into regular squares or rectangles.

Contractors can lay these stones in different patterns. They can also choose to add mortar or leave the gaps bare. Either way, though, the effect is relatively formal because of the regularity of the stone pavers. Indeed, you often see these paths bordered with brick or another stone to create an even more formal effect.

Mortared Irregular Stones

Many landscape designers prefer to use irregular stones. The fabricators use the irregular shape of the rock and simply slice it to create the flat tops for a walkway. So when you look at the stone from the top, the shape is irregular. They do sometimes fabricate the edges just to make them a little straighter.

Contractors can lay these stones near each other as a sort of puzzle, perhaps further cutting some of the edges to create smooth lines at the edge of the path. When they fill in the gaps with mortar, the result is a finished elegance. However, the irregular shapes of the stone prevent the walkway from being quite as formal as ones featuring regularly-shaped stone.

Spaced Irregular Stones

As noted, stepping stones are a little like puzzle pieces. They do have some regular edges, but they're overall irregular in shape. So, if the contractors fit them together without adding mortar, you get the effect of a cracked pavement. This style can look quite creative, especially if you intersperse different colors throughout the path.

You can also choose more rough-hewn rocks. They should still be relatively flat for ease of walking. However, you can look for stones that haven't been smoothed on the edges. When the contractors put these stones together, the effect will be far more rustic in style than the above example.

Stones Bordered with Gravel

You can play with texture when you add another hardscaping element to stone walkways. For example, you can start with a path of irregularly-shaped stones with gaps in between. These gaps are more significant that with the puzzle method. To fill in these gaps, you can introduce another material - pea gravel.

Pea gravel features small, smooth shapes. These shapes will make a pleasant contrast to the large, irregular stepping stones. The style here can be modern if you use oversized stepping stones. The play on proportion between the pea gravel and stepping stones will emphasize the shape of the latter.

Stones Interspersed with Plants

Another way to play with texture is to add landscaping elements. The landscaping plant you choose will heavily influence the finished style.

For instance, a growing trend for pathways is to lay irregular, flat stepping stones into the lawn. The grass grows in tufts between the stones. The bright green of the grass further outlines the shape of the stone, which gives the walkway a contemporary feeling.

You can choose another groundcover plant for the gaps. Thyme is especially resistant to foot traffic. However, you can also look for blooming groundcover plants. Because these plants don't grow like a dense carpet the way grass does, they soften the edges of the stepping stones. As a result, you get an informal, even rustic garden walkway.

If you're thinking of having a natural stone walkway installed, consider some of the above ways you can promote a unique style. For the stone itself, visit The Rock Garden.