23 River Rock Landscaping Ideas for Your Garden and Yard

Add an organic feel to your outdoor space with river rock landscaping ideas.

From small pea gravel to stones, and larger rocks and boulders, river rocks get their smooth, rounded edges from the movement of water in natural river beds.

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Use river rock landscaping to add a natural feel to outdoor features such as walkways, edging, garden beds or containers, gravel patios, and more. 

Here are some river rock landscaping ideas in a range of settings and designs to inspire you.

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Stone Path

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This stone path combines two sizes and colorways of river rock (tan pea gravel and grey stones) with large natural pavers.

Dividers separate mulched areas from gravel to keep things looking neat.

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Gravel Patio

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This minimalist-style seating area features a long fire feature and modern wicker chairs on a simple pea gravel patio. 

Installing landscape edging made of granite and slabs for stairs makes for a sleek, clean look.

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Dry River Bed for Drainage

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If your property has drainage issues, or sloping areas where run-off is a problem, creating a dry river bed can help, in addition to being a beautiful addition to your landscape.

This version uses different sizes of river to create a stable bed, and is anchored further with lush plantings.

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Gravel Fire Pit Area

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This path ending in a round seating area is a clever use of space in this narrow yard.

The shrubs provide privacy and the ending keeps the gravel in place.

The stone fire dish completes this simple, functional design.

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Patio Container Garden

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If you long for an outdoor garden space but don’t have good soil or time for maintenance, consider a gravel patio seating area with potted plants.

This one also has oblong wood planters with Mediterranean herbs.

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Pea Gravel Path

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Once your surface is level, making a gravel path only requires some landscaping fabric, an optional layer of sand, some rocks or bricks for edging, and a rake to spread the gravel.

It’s a project that can be done in a day and will vastly improve the form and function of your garden.

Pea gravel makes for a comfy, ergonomic walking surface too.

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Colorful River Rock Garden

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Your local supplier may have a wide variety of sizes, textures and colors available for a rock garden, including matte surface river rock or shiny stones, and colors ranging from white to black, grey, tan, blue, purple or even pink.

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Pea Gravel Driveway

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Gravel is an excellent easy to use material for a driveway or walkway and can be simpler to maintain than asphalt in areas that freeze in winter.

Gravel’s lighter colors also provide a different and somewhat warmer aesthetic compared to blacktop.

The pea gravel here works well with the large slates to create a patio area at the entrance to this house.

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Rock Garden + Groundcovers

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An easy and attractive garden design can be made with pea gravel, larger river rocks, and a selection of creeping groundcovers.

Choose groundcovers that like good drainage and don’t need too much water, like creeping phlox, creeping sedums, dianthus, and creeping bellflowers/campanula.

These are all perennials that can be deadheaded and divided easily.

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Weed-Free Flower Beds

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This flower bed-in-progress uses landscaping fabric with holes for plants and river rock gravel instead of mulch for a clean look that works to keep weeds at a minimum.

Not all plants are suited to this type of planting, and prefer a more traditional soil culture.

But many plants adapt well, including many shrubs, and most drought-tolerant plants such as sedums and salvias.

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Gravel Patio + Groundcover

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Sometimes you want the view to command your full attention.

That calls for keeping your landscaping plan simple: a gravel patio, a couple of low-maintenance ground cover plantings, and seating to enjoy your surroundings.

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River Rock Water Feature

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River rocks are a great choice to use in building a water feature, because their smooth surfaces catch the light so well as water trickles over them.

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Gravel + Granite Patio

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The gravel and granite boulders in this seating area provide a neutral backdrop for the bright red chairs and plantings of Russian sage and red bee balm in this pollinator friendly garden.

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Zen Rock Garden

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Traditional zen rock gardens in Japan can be very large but you can create a smaller version in your yard using pea gravel and larger stones.

The design is meant to display symbolic elements of nature, like the rippled lines in gravel representing ocean waves. using rounded river rock gravel will give your zen garden a smooth texture.

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Decorative Planter Accents

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Using river rock as a decorative accent in your plants lets you play with colors, shapes and textures on a smaller scale.

Pebbles can also help anchor plants in place and retain moisture.

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Xeriscape Pea Gravel

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Xeriscape gardening in areas with low rainfall is a good fit with river rock design.

Succulents, cacti and creeping drought-tolerant plants like the euphorbia pictured here do very well in a bed of pea gravel.

Stone holds heat and cold, so this desert garden will also cool off nicely at night helped by the stone’s excellent conducting properties.

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Succulent Rock Garden

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Succulents do very well with minimal soil and in fact grow very well in gravel.

Being natives to desert climates, these plants thrive with the excellent drainage and heat preservation that a rocky environment provides.

They’re versatile for design, too, available in a range of sizes, shapes and colors.

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Stone Sculpture

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Many river rocks have flat sides making them easy to stack up and form sculptures.

These can be made with rocks of virtually any size, and can be placed throughout your garden, on a table or next to your entrance.

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River Rock Pet Patio

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You’ve probably noticed your dogs and cats love to spend time in the garden on a sunny day.

Having gravel surfaces that hold onto the heat provides a nice place for them to lie down on a cooler day, and as a bonus, they’re not as likely to get dirty.

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River Rock Grass Border

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Combining river rock gravel and small boulders with clumping native grasses is a simple, low-maintenance, and striking garden plan.

This one has smooth pea gravel and smooth rocks for edging, with rougher rocks placed among the plants for texture.

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Round Rock Garden Bed

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Yucca are drought-tolerant plants that bloom every few years. Their dramatic shape can command an entire small bed and their low-water needs means gravel makes a good mulch for them.

This simple design only requires pavers, gravel, a Yucca filamentosa plant, and, if desired landscaping fabric or sand beneath the gravel.

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Stone Planters

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This sleek design plan featuring stone planters on a bed of white pea gravel allows for an easy access and easy maintenance herb garden area with Mediterranean plants that enjoy the heated stone surfaces.

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Pebble Pots

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If you’re feeling crafty, create handsome pots for your plants out of small river rock, either layering them with mortar or attaching with waterproof glue to terracotta planters.

What are the downsides of using river rocks in landscaping?

Though river rock is a flexible material, there are some cons to using it. Gravel or stone isn’t a great choice for a steep or inclined area as the weight of the stone over time will tend to slide to the bottom, helped along by rain and other factors.

Stone can also be difficult to keep looking tidy, so using it in high-traffic areas, or places near trees with a lot of leaf litter or fruit debris (like maples, gingkos, black walnuts or crabapples, to name a few) might cause a seasonal mess that will become tiresome to clean up year after year. Using a rake, broom and small leaf blower can help clear the debris.

FAQ

• What do you put down before river rock?To prevent weeds, lay down landscaping fabric or sand beneath your gravel or rock layer. River rock works well as a hardscape material in a desert or xeriscape garden, and can be used as a coverage instead of mulch and provide drainage. You can keep weed growth minimal by spraying with horticultural vinegar or salt water.
• How do you prepare ground for river rock landscaping?Prepare ground for river rock landscaping by pulling up and removing grass and weeds from the roots; leveling the area; laying down a landscape fabric lining; and spreading a layer of soil before adding gravel, rocks, stone, or boulders.
• What size river rock is best for landscaping?The best size river rock depends on your landscaping project. River rock comes in a variety of sizes, from small pea gravel to cover walkways and patios to stones ranging in size from lima beans to avocados and larger rocks and boulders used for everything from edging to rain gardens.