Credit to Bosch Landscape:

Stop for a second. Close your eyes. In your mind, picture your perfect yard—the way you’d want your own outdoor space to look if you had the chance to remake it.

What does it look like?

Everybody, of course, has different aesthetic tastes. But chances are, whatever your style, you pictured something with a seamless blend of both natural and man-made elements. In other words, you’d be incorporating both softscape and hardscape features.

What Is Hardscape?

Within the context of landscape design, “hardscape” can refer to any hard, inanimate materials used in your landscaping. Most obviously, that includes all manmade elements like patios, walkways, fire pits, planters, retaining walls, and the like. But it could also include more “natural” elements like gravel, woodchips, or stone arrangements.

By contrast, “softscape” is more or less synonymous with “alive and growing.” Flowers, shrubs, trees, etc.

Hardscaping Challenges

For those of you hardcore DIYers out there, designing and building your own patio, pathway, or other hardscape feature seems like the ultimate summer project. We’re not trying to spoil your fun, but there are some significant reasons you might want to pump the brakes a bit and reconsider.

The main reason is that, unlike flowerbeds or other softscape features, hardscaping is meant to be much more permanent—and therefore the risks are much greater if things don’t work out quite the way you expect them to. You can put in a lot of effort—and a lot of money—into making your dream yard, only to have your design or materials collapse within a few years.

Here are just a few of the challenges and questions that arise any time you’re thinking of adding hardscaping to your outdoor space:

Don’t Leave It to Chance

No matter the size or scope of your project, you should always bring in an experienced professional to provide an opinion. Even if it’s a relatively small improvement and you’re a skilled tradesman, you can still benefit from speaking with a landscaping expert or consultant. We’ve already said it, but it bears repeating: when it comes to hardscaping, you really, really don’t want to leave it to chance.

Fortunately, you have the Bosch’s Landscaping team on your side. We are experts in site analysis and landscape design, and have extensive experience constructing hardscaping projects for residential and commercial clients throughout West Michigan.

Do you need someone to help turn your dreams into reality? Who can take your unique passion, style, and ideas and use them to design a functional outdoor space—keeping in mind concerns about drainage, environmental concerns, build quality, and future use? If so, give us a call for your free estimate.