While "landscaping" is a familiar term, the "hardscaping" aspects may be a new term for some people. What exactly is hardscaping?

Hardscape uses "hard" building materials. It's generally permanent and involves natural stone, gravel, or boulders as well as manufactured products including pavers, bricks, retaining wall blocks, stepping stones, and edging stone. In some cases, treated timber or even metal can be employed.

Hardscaping is ideal for solving difficult landscaping situations like steep areas affected by soil erosion, low spots where water collects, and areas where heavy foot traffic makes it difficult to maintain a lawn.

People often employ hardscaping for a patio or retaining wall. On a steep property, a retaining wall can level off the slope to provide more useable space because you can develop the level area for a garden or patio. Interlocking pavers are frequently used for pathways or patios and a reasonably handy homeowner can do it with a few tool like a level, tamper, wheelbarrow, and shovel.

Retaining walls, on the other hand, can be more complicated. In many places, homeowners must use a certified installer or get a permit depending on the wall's design. The permit is less about color or materials and more about how much of the property is involved, how the wall will be reinforced and backfilled and how drainage will be managed.

Drainage is always an important aspect of landscaping and hardscaped areas like driveways or large patios can lead to problems with flooding. A good answer for this is the use of permeable materials. These can be part of a green system to capture and recycle storm water back into the ground by allowing water to penetrate through the material. It can keep your driveway from being flooded and prevent runoff into local streams.

Permeable pavers, natural stone, and gravel are environmentally friendly, especially in areas where paving isn't desirable like a particularly large driveway. In these cases, permeable pavers and stone can let water seep through rather than end up as runoff.

Water features are another popular form of hardscape and can be well-suited for solving landscaping problems. For example, a low-lying area in a yard can be converted to a fishpond or fountain. Waterfalls with recirculating pumps add a pleasant ambiance to a yard and the sound of the water attracts songbirds.

Hardscaping can make a home's entry more inviting with a curving walkway and handsome brick or stone steps leading to the front door. It can also be useful in making yard care more convenient with mowing strips around gardens. Some homeowners create extra living areas such as an outdoor kitchen with a built-in fireplace, barbecue, and counter area. Others opt for an outdoor patio with built-in seating and a fire pit.

In areas with poor soil, hardscaping can be used to create raised beds to fill with a good gardening medium for flowers, vegetables and herbs. Hardscaped pathways make it easier for persons with disabilities to move around a yard and to use a raised garden.

The bottom line is that to address problem areas, increase livability, and add yard appeal, there are almost endless possibilities for enhancing a property with hardscaping.

Lynn Pribus and her husband live in Virginia. An angled hardscape flight of timber-and-flagstone steps connects to their flagstone entryway.

Meet Lynn