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Halloween 2025

Crusher Run Gravel: An Affordable and Good Looking Stone Alternative for Garden Hardscapes

In this time of financial insecurity, there are options to get the walkway or patio you want with some labor and minimal expense for the materials.

Crusher run is a compactable, mixed sized crushed stone product that includes stone dust making it a stable and durable base for driveways, patios and walkways. It provides excellent drainage and prevents settling. It comes in gray, bluish gray, blue green, tan, brown, red and even purple.

If you have a stone project going on at your house and don’t see any crusher run, you may have a problem! My company relaid many walkways and patios because the builder had used sand or dirt as a base instead of crusher run. A building project settles with time and gets cracks initially which leads to more problems.

A great aspect of using the correct base of crusher run is that you have the option of putting natural stone on top of the crusher run in the future. Just plan for your grade (if you add stone later) to end up at ground level. You can also just have the walkway or patio in crusher run as a finished product as I am suggesting in this blog. Crusher run is inexpensive compared to pavers, slate and or natural stones. Crusher run is now $35 per ton. The cost of pavers wholesale is at least $8-$12 per square foot or for natural stone $325 per ton.

Pea Gravel is not the same as Crusher Run

Although people like the color of pea gravel it is often put down too thickly and splays when you walk on it or drive your car on it. Many times contractors put too much pea gravel down which really causes lots of aggravation to you the buyer!

Apparently there is now a glue to keep pea gravel in place. I wonder what happens over time to the glue?

First, Dig Down

To start any crusher run project you must first dig down for a walkway, patio or driveway. Crusher run has to end up being flush to the earth and must be 4-8” deep for a driveway or 4-6” for a walkway. The irregular shaped stone allows the stone to lock together. After the gravel is laid relatively flat it must be tamped down so it doesn’t shift.

For the base of shorter walls a “footer” is dug and crusher run is put down in the footer trench before stacking stone begins. Solid concrete should be used instead of crusher run for taller walls.

Lay gravel

Lay gravel about 2″ thick within the outline you have for the stone project. Tamp down stone with a machine for big jobs or with a hand tamper for smaller jobs. You have to get the stone flat and solid.

After tamping lightly water in the new gravel to help the stone settle and turn the stone dust in it to a more cement like consistency. A few areas may sink in the process of locking together and may need a little more gravel to make it flat.

Use an ‘Edger’

Place an ‘edger’ around the new walkway or patio you have outlined with the crusher run so gravel stays within certain bounds. Steel edging (not plastic), bricks or pavers work well.

Lay the edger to grade with the finished project. Sometimes the steel iedging s laid with very little in the dirt and a lot showing. I am not a fan of this look.

Below are a few examples of crusher run that we integrated into our garden design.

A crusher run center piece for a parterre garden on Monument Avenue.

An upscale garden where a crusher run path meanders around waterfalls, ponds and under a large trellis of wisteria.

A Funeral Home walkway where Memorability Plaques are ‘planted’ in the crusher run.

The Mediterranean Garden

We couldn’t match the stone under the trellis. The walkway was pea gravel which splayed when stepped on and would not stay within the walkway parameters. We chose Albemarle Green crusher run which adds color to the small area and sets off the trellis. A dining table and chairs will be the only furniture in the garden. The simplicity of it all gives a lovely clean and colorful look.

Our Shop in Scott’s Addition

At our shop in Scott’s Addition we scraped up a parking lot to make a Native Garden and dog park for the neighborhood. We also made the huge boulder fountain shown below for the birds, bees and dogs! Crusher run is critical to help the stone stay put when dogs zoom across the walkway.

A Small Pull-In

Here is the paver walkway and crusher run pull-in we added for convenient parking for our client. The paver walkway holds the gravel in place.

Enter into the Project

Initially, maybe give a small spot a try like the the landing at the bottom of an outdoor stairway or even the base of your garbage can area. Where ever the project is attempted, you will have a cleaner looking area with less mud. Start small and see how it goes. Ask a couple friends to cheer you on if nothing else.

Christie lives in Manakin Sabot , Virginia where she manages a 3 acre garden. Her blogs are written from her 35 years as a personal and professional gardener.