Hardscape – What Does That Mean?
Hardscaping is a term that is usually used by most people to describe anything used in an outdoor space design that is made of natural materials, but not living materials such as trees, shrubs or other plants and grasses. “Hardscape” can include a large number of things. Paver walks, stone pathways,driveways, retaining walls, and patios are a few examples. Generally it’s going to be the structural part of your landscape. Consisting of pavers,blockwall systems and natural stone.
Landscape
Most people are more familiar with the term “Landscape” or “Landscaping”. These terms would refer to all your softer living materials. Plants, turf or sod grasses, and organic ground covering materials of many types can be considered landscaping. Landscaping will compliment a hardscape project when completed.
Landscaping and Hardscaping and How They Work Together
When a project is being designed it is very important that you take into consideration how the landscape and hardscape will be working together. You want them to flow with each other and compliment one another. Since landscaping is dealing with actual living plants its important to take into consideration how these plants are going to look now and years down the road. Its important that they don’t over crowd the walkways and patios. Or sometimes we want to create a “living fence” and variety and placement is even more crucial. When planning a walk way or patio we will often times run conduit under them to provide access for low voltage lighting or possibly access for irrigation lines. So as you can see it is very important to look at the bigger picture when planning a hardscape project. You generally want to mix hardscape and landscape together. It helps to bring out the characteristics and the beauty of the plant materials used and give the lawn and landscaping some shape and variety of texture, with more of a three dimensional look.Depending on each individual situation, we can easily find ways to use them together or separately while creating the most functional outdoor spaces possible.
