Building steps in the landscape (Photo by Jane Gates)
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Many gardens are built on varying levels or with hills. You can have your landscape engineered to smooth out and flatten areas or you can use these different heights to sculpt interest into your garden design. Using steps or staircases not only will help you move between different elevations, but can create design elements that add interest in color, texture and form. Here are some ideas for building steps in the landscape.
MATERIALS
Steps and stairs can be made of many materials to achieve different effects. Slabs of stone, wood, concrete or pieces of railroad ties can create a natural feel. More formal steps might be cast in concrete, paved with tiles or geometric stepping stones or fabricated of wood or metal. A quaint effect might be built designing with aged bricks. And a unique effect might be designed into a contemporary landscape with steps topped with recycled cast metal treads. There is no rule about what can and can’t be used to form your steps. Just make sure the materials you use to build your steps are resistant to outdoor weather, do not become slippery when wet, and are substantial and safe for bearing weight.
DESIGN
Steps can handle slight elevations. One or two steps can be carved into a landscape to be decorative as well as practical. These small steps can be widened into retaining walls, colored with paint or ornamental tiles to become decoration or kept simple and unobtrusive. If you have multiple areas that need steps, fashion them similarly to keep continuity to your overall design.
Longer stairways on a hill or slope can be made into a feature or even a focal point of the garden. You can line them with decorative railings or blend them subtly into the overall landscape. Edge them with solar lights to pick out glowing lines after dark for both safety and décor. Or herald the entry with an archway. Longer stairways should meander or curve slightly in natural or informal styled gardens. Make them straight or angular in formal or geometric landscape designs.
One idea for breaking up longer stairways is to build in a patio as landing so you can turn a hillside into a multilevel garden with seating areas. Another idea is to vary the length of each step so it forms an interesting wash-board design as it moves up a hillside.
CONSTRUCTION
Make your steps solid, stable and easily negotiable. The normal stairway is roughly 7" in height and 12" in depth. This is the most comfortable spacing for natural footing so try to keep your stairs roughly around the same spacing. Steps will be open to weather so you want to make sure they are set firmly into the ground so soil beneath will not erode away and make them dangerous. Use gravel, roadbase, cement or packed-hard soil to set your steps. If you are filling most of your step with loose material like gravel or sand, construct a secure lip that will not only hold the material in place, but will afford a solid retaining edge and firm footing. Safety is a priority even with just a few steps. Also, check with your local building codes to find out if there are any regulations that will impact your stairs.
Use steps and stairs in landscaping to offset one area from another, to help foot traffic passage, to allow yourself access through hillsides and to create design features in your landscape. With a little forethought, you can make a practical convenience into a design statement by using creative ideas for building steps into your landscape.
Comments
Stepping down is starting to jar my body to much, is there a way to make a ramp that might actually look nice when you already have a patio there? I keep trying to visualize something but it never comes together.
My friend has a home that sit quite high above a lake. She has used concrete blocks to create a staircase down to the lake with a metal pipe as the railing. The steps are illuminated with solar lights and she has perennial gardens edged with large stones at four levels. Her design is very pretty and was very inexpensive to build!
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