Do you wish you had a luxury landscape design but don’t have the funds to hire weekly lawn repair services, nor the time (or know-how) do it yourself? If this is you, you could probably benefit from investing in a few hardscape materials and setting up a permanent fixture that takes up landscaping space. What is hardscaping? We’re glad you asked. Hardscaping is thie permanent fixtures that are incorporated into a landscape design. This includes a nice brick patio, outdoor kitchen, walkway, and so on.
The price of hardscape materials might be slightly more than the cost of softscaping (softscaping is the living aspect of landscaping; plant and flowers and the lawn and such), but — unlike other types of landscaping — the investment of hardscape materials is a one-time shebang that requires little to no maintenance. In fact, we’re so sold on hardscaping materials, we’ve put together a list of reasons you should love it too:
Five Reasons to Love Hardscaping
- Enjoy your yard all year long.
As you know, most landscaping fixtures are seasonal. The lawn is green and beautiful and the flowers are blooming in the spring. Then the cold sets in and everything goes grey. Your annuals die off, and your perennials shed their leaves and look barren.
On the other hand, you’r outdoor kitchen and bricked-in patio looks lovely all year long. In the spring and summer and fall and winter, it still has the functionality it’s meant to have. But you say, you can’t use an outdoor living area in the winter, right? That brings us to one of our favorite types of hardscape materials: outdoor fire place. There is nothing cozier than sitting by a fire in the middle of the snow, sipping a hot chocolate! - Make the most of your yard, with zero maintenance.
The problem with those lush green lawns is that you have to water them to get them to grow. And then after they grow, you have to go out an mow it every weekend. The problem with elaborate gardens is that they have to be planted and weeded and fertilized and pruned. Living plants have needs.
On the other hand, when you install a brick walkway, it asks nothing of you. You can lay elaborate paver patio designs that have the same “Wow!” factor that a beautiful garden has, but never have to lift a finger to do work on it on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you’d rather be relaxing. In fact, your patio is the place you’ll be relaxing at, instead of mowing the grass. - Increase the usable space in your home.
You can never be too rich or too skinny. And you can add to that list that you never have too much usable space in your home. When you install a nice hardscaping feature like a gazebo or a deck, it gives you a lovely place to relax or to eat Sunday brunch or to host parties. It makes your home feel larger, because you have more space that you actually use, even if it’s not indoors. In fact, it’s really more enjoyable because it’s not indoors anyways. - Repair uneven landscaping.
We call this one a two-fer. You might not specifically install a brick path because you have an uneven lawn, but it repairs many issues that are associated with it. For example, if your yard has a steep slope that makes it unusable, you can build a hardscaped wall that gives you a retained area you can create a level garden with. You can create a stairs case with pavers that makes it easier to climb. Hardscaping adds an element of level-ness that fixes your uneven lawn issues. - Create privacy.
If your yard is exposed to traffic or too close to your neighbors, or you just want a place to get away from it all, hardscaping is definitely the answer for you. Build yourself a hardscaped wall or a gazebo or courtyard, so that you can relax and enjoy yourself without the view of the world around you (and without the world around you being able to view you!).
We want to hear what you think about this subject! Do you have any other questions or comments? Please share in the comment section below.