The Artistic Joy of Using Natural Stone in the Landscape
By Bill Primavera
The Home Guru
As Published in The Examiner, The Putnam Examiner and The Yorktown Examiner
In South Philadelphia where I was born, my family lived in a narrow row home with the expected white marble front steps. In back, we had only a small patch of garden and, there, my mother would plant bright yellow marigolds in late spring. At only three years of age, I felt some need to enhance the effect. In the back alley, I found little pebbles and used them to encircle each and every plant. My mother probably didn’t have the heart to override my artistic expression, and that marked the beginning of my love of natural stone for garden enhancement.
Here in Westchester and Putnam Counties, we have plenty of stone, mostly granite, deposited in the Ice Age that formed the beautiful mountains, valleys, streams and lakes that make up our gorgeous landscape today. For me, my stone work on my property – the terraces, stone stairs, patios, paths and walls, built over three decades of joyful handiwork -- form the visual interest outdoors when the leaves and flowers of spring and summer fade and disappear. With natural stone, there are textures, patterns and color to be enjoyed when everything else is barren.
Property enhancement with stone is a two-part process: sourcing the materials and then applying them in projects that can both utilize the stone found and create some functional or visual effect within the already-existing landscape. The easy way to source material is simply to go to a garden supply center and buy a pallet or two of stone that you find most appealing. But to me, this is almost cheating, although I’ve succumbed to it on occasion. Most times, it’s the hunt for material that I enjoy.
This quest for sourcing stone started while I still lived in the City, when I acquired my first home, a Federal townhouse located in Brooklyn Heights. The original bluestone sidewalk had long since disappeared and there was an old, cracked concrete walkway from the house façade to the street. I hired some “preservationists” who helped me acquire some bluestone slabs from another neighborhood further into Brooklyn that was being re-developed for new housing. While I hoped they didn’t steal the material, I didn’t ask, I didn’t tell.
Between the bluestone slabs and the curb, I arranged Belgian block that I had taken from a downtown NYC excavation site (first asking the foreman if I could and slipping him a few bucks). I was in creative heaven, loading down the trunk of my car with these stones that had originally served as ballast on merchant ships returning from Europe. My tailpipe dragged along the ground as I returned home. The combined effect of the cobblestone and bluestone was beautiful. Since I had literally no back yard, the extent of my stone work was limited to what had already been done in front of the house.
But when I moved to Northern Westchester, I bought an old farmhouse on one and a half acres of land that was to become my canvas for natural stone art for the next 30 years. While it originally had been very stony land as everything in upper Westchester is, the ground had been long removed of stone to allow for farming. The stones taken from my property had been placed on the other side of my road in odd stone walls that had long ago collapsed into amorphous mounds of material. I asked the owner of the lot if I could take loose stones there and she agreed. Stone by stone, I gathered as much material as my wheelbarrow and my back could tolerate and started plying my talent for natural stone placement.
My system is this: I use the stone exactly as found. I have no stone cutting tools, nor do I want them. I like the challenge of designing according to individual shapes, colors and textures of stone and how they relate to each other and to the total project, without breaking them up. And, I never use mortar to fill cracks or to hold things together.
This is more fun, much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, whether I am building a wall that needs to be steady and strong, or laying paths and patios on sand, requiring that the stones all butt up against each other on all sides, creating a visually pleasing pattern of shape and color.
Field stone is either in the grey or brown family, and I like to mix them, rather than choosing just one tone. If the surface is to be level “walkable” it’s always best to find a stone that is flat on two sides for the top and bottom, but I have laid many stones with a curved bottom, adjusting the sand and earth beneath it to the shape so that it will lie flat.
The only man-made product I’ve used is molded brick to create a Flemish bond pattern on my back patio. I wanted the color of the varied-colored brick coming up to the house. It has remained straight and level for many years because I did the proper preparation work that can be found in project manuals.
One of my most prolific sourcing opportunities came about when I was driving through Peekskill one day where an original bluestone sidewalk was being demolished to make way for brand new concrete. Again I talked to the foreman of the job and gave him a few bucks to drive over to my house and drop off the broken pieces behind my garage (he was just going to dump it in landfill). I didn’t realize how big that pile would be, actually almost as tall as my garage, and my wife definitely was not happy when she got home. But what fun I had literally for years afterward, creating borders for my driveway and incorporating the deep blue color into the fieldstone colors in my walking paths and seating areas. I used the rest for solid bluestone walls, raised garden beds and terrace borders.
When the last survey was done of my property, I was thrilled to find that every patio, seating area, terrace and path had been included by the surveyor into the document. It was testament to something I had created that was actually architectural and long lasting and hopefully enjoyed by generations to come. And in the meantime, I have many beautiful expressions of my handiwork to enjoy every day.
Bill Primavera is a Westchester, NY-based realtor ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and marketing practitioner ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) who can be reached for questions or comment directly at 914-522-2076.
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