Landscaping & Hardscaping Ideas

Adding hardscaping to your landscaping plans can give even a beautiful yard more structure.

Good landscaping and hardscaping can turn a boring lawn (or the dirt lot on which a brand-new home sits) into an attractive and appealing family living space. Regardless of the style of your home and the style you've chosen for your outdoor spaces, there are some basic hardscaping options that can build up your overall landscaping.

Walkways

One of the two most basic parts of hardscaping (the other being the driveway), a walkway is most commonly used as a means to get from the drive to the front door. But not all homes have a driveway, so walkways can connect the front door to the sidewalk, or be used as a path down the side of the house to the backyard. Hardscaping materials like stepping stones, concrete, bricks and pebbles are all commonly used to build these paths. Depending on the amount and type of traffic, you might want to add landscaping, lining them with flowerbeds or ground covering, elevating them by a few inches, or, for very grand walks, lining them with trees and shrubs.

Driveways

If you have a driveway or have room for one, it can be your next hardscaping element. Ten feet is the standard width of a one-car driveway, but adding an extra 3 feet on the house side can give visitors walking room and lessen the chances of them treading on your lawn or landscaping. One way to clarify that it's for walking is to pave it with a different material than the rest of the drive. If you have a two-car garage, you can follow suit with the width of its opening. Like a walking path, a driveway can be lined with flowers, shrubs or trees or fences, but keep in mind its use. Avoid planting bushes and trees with thorns or other sharp points very near the driveway, as they can reach into the area and scratch moving vehicles. And if you plan to install a basketball goal, remember that a ball will consistently be bouncing into areas behind it.

Patios

The size, shape and grandeur of your patio will depend largely on how and how frequently you plan to use it. If you plan to have a lot of parties, you'll want to be able to house a large number of people out there. If you have older kids who will use it as a hangout or if you work at home and just want to enjoy the setting, you'll want to use comfortable furniture and some tables. In very warm climates, backyard patios often include outdoor kitchens. Try to make your patio proportionate to the size of your house, and use materials that complement its architecture and style. As you're building the patio, think about your landscaping. Will you line the area with flowerbeds or shrubs? Arbors are popular additions to patios and can double as trellises. You can also break up the hardscaping with potted plants of all sizes and heights. You want to treat the patio as an outdoor room, so plants will keep the area from being too bare and dead.

References

• University of Missouri Extension: Landscaping Your Front Yard
• HGTV: Patio Planning 101