All the Ways We Use Hardscaping for Easy Living

Summertime and the living is easy…well, not yet. But as soon as the flowers come up and the sun comes out again, we love spending as much time outdoors as possible! At Fair Outdoor Design, that's not just for working but for living as well, and our outdoor work is designed to improve your outdoor life! The case and point at hand today is hardscaping. There are so many ways you can use hardscapes to improve your backyard and the time you spend living outdoors. We'll go into many of them in depth in future blogs, but today is all about the rundown of each to prepare you for how you want to spend your Skiatook summer! What Is Hardscaping? Hardscaping, as opposed to soft scaping, is the part of landscaping created from solid manufactured (or modified) materials. Hardscapes make up many of your favorite areas of your yard and the places where you spend the most time. They intertwine with the living elements of your landscaping to create a beautiful whole and are often the spots where you sit or stand to enjoy the view of your plants. What Materials Make Up Hardscapes? Hardscapes are a broad term that includes stone, pavers, bricks, and concrete. Some people even include wooden decks within it. In today's blog, as we discuss hardscaping, we will primarily refer to stone and concrete pavers and how we use them to construct outdoor living spaces. Patios It all begins with a patio! Patios are, at their minimum, a concrete pad outside the backdoor or the home. So if you have one, technically, you have a patio! But they can be a lot more than that too. Patios can be large and ornate and can include many of the elements that we'll discuss below. They're often the area in our yards where we host company during a cookout or other dinner party. They may be covered or open-air and can also feature designs using pavers. Walkways Have lovely landscapes that you want to keep intact? Walkways are the perfect way to do that. Using hardscape materials, we'll create paths from each of the most used parts of your landscape to the others. These paths also act as a frame for your gardens and other vegetation. Fire Pits Where walkways move people out to the edges of your landscape to the pretty areas they might otherwise miss, fire pits do the opposite. Instead, they bring people closer as a focal point that entertains, warms, and lights your way. Firepits, like patios, can be simple or ornate, large or small. You can also use some fire pits for minor cooking. Smores anyone? Outdoor Kitchens Of course, if outdoor cooking is the main reason you want to add hardscaping, you can go further by creating an outdoor kitchen. While adding a barbeque grill has always been an option, modern outdoor kitchens are equipped with everything an indoor one has or more. You can run water and electricity outside, so you have all the indoor amenities like sinks, ice makers, stoves, and cooktops. But the most exciting parts are what you can't do inside! Have you always wanted a brick pizza oven, or how about a grill built into your stone? With no kitchen ceiling, the sky's the limit! Water Elements You can't go wrong with a water element if you want to bring peace and tranquility into your yard. A running water fountain drowns out unwanted noise and provides a welcome respite to you and the friendly critters who call your yard home. Retaining Walls Whether you want to build up your gardens or keep them from eroding, retaining walls are your solution. Unfortunately, these walls have a boring reputation because municipalities typically use plain grey concrete to use them on the sides of steep highways to keep the hillside from coming down. We can build them just as strong but much prettier! You don't need only to use retaining walls on tall hillsides. You can use them in gardens closer to the ground to keep them in place or build up landscape walls to create vertical gardens where you used to have flat land. Tiered retaining walls are an excellent option for multilevel gardens and seating! Plan In Spring, Enjoy in Summer We know that summer is not here just yet, but you don't want to wait until it is to install new hardscaping. So let's start you off with a gorgeous design and get it in the ground before the summer entertaining season!