Hardscaping vs. Softscaping: What’s the Difference?
Most people have heard of landscaping, but has everyone heard of hardscaping and softscaping? They’re similar-sounding terms that people can easily mistake for each other. If you’re not an expert at landscaping and everything associated with it, it makes sense that you wouldn’t know the difference. If you don’t know, hardscaping includes things made with hard materials like stone and wood, such as:
- Driveways
- Fences
- Benches
- Patios
- Walls
- Walkways
- Stone steps
- Decks
- Gazebos
- Pergolas
- Fountains
Softscaping, on the other hand, is anything built with plant materials, whether it's for function or aesthetics. This means that hardscaping and softscaping are both types of landscaping. Examples of softscaping include:
- Planting beds
- Lawns
- Shrubs
- Flowering trees
- Grass
- Trees
Why is Hardscaping Necessary?
Without hardscaping, whatever goes into your softscaping plans can be ruined or destroyed by any number of factors. With strategically placed rocks alone, you can control and improve things like:
- Drainage
- Runoff
- Uneven land
- Standing water
- Over-watering
- Invasive plants (like algae and mildew)
- Pests
These are things that will destroy your plants, and what’s the point of having a lawn if everything is dead?
Hardscaping doesn’t only work to protect your softscape. Hardscape also helps to make traversing your lawn easy and safe. If you get hurt moving around your lawn, you can’t take care of it, or worse, you won’t want to go through it.
Why is Softscaping Necessary?
What’s the point of hardscaping your lawn if there’s nothing for hardscape to protect? Softscape like grass, flowers, trees, and shrubbery add life and character to your lawn. When you don’t have any softscaping, your lawn can be uncomfortable to walk on, let alone be around. It’ll store heat and make walking around your hardscape uncomfortable.
Even if you don’t have to interact with your lawn, your lawn will be incredibly unappealing to look at. While aesthetics may not be important to you, they may be to your local area. Zoning laws in your area may maintain that you have to maintain your lawn, and if you don’t, you’ll face fines. It’s far easier to take care of your lawn than to let it fall apart without any softscape.
Contact Your Pioneer Landscape Centers for Landscaping Needs
Hardscape and softscape work together to make your lawn complete. You can’t have a lawn without both of them. If you need all the tools and materials to complete your hardscaping and softscaping projects, contact the experts at Pioneer Landscape Centers.