We Don’t Mean to Give You a Hard Time… The Best Ways To Use Hardscaping

Landscaping isn’t just about soft grass, pretty flowers, and trees. It’s about everything that makes your property unique.

In some cases, that may include manufactured structures and hardscaping. For example, a patio, fire pit, or outdoor living space can significantly enhance your home and make your outdoor parties pop.

Here are our favorite ways to use hardscaping to improve your property.

Patios

The center of most hardscape designs is the patio. Whether a simple spot to sit and talk or an elaborate outdoor kitchen, the patio is an excellent spot for outdoor entertaining, especially in Southern California, where we can entertain all year!

Patios are an excellent investment you can make to improve your property value. Outdoor living space is highly desirable for home buyers. Even a simple concrete pad increases the value of your home.

But patios aren’t just valuable to future home buyers. They’re beneficial to the current inhabitants – you! Adding outdoor living space is like adding a room to your house at a fraction of the cost!

You can use your space for hosting dinner parties, drinks, or your morning cup of coffee.

Firepits

One super fun addition to any outdoor living space is a fire pit. Fire has fascinated humans since the dawn of man, so a fire pit makes an excellent focal point for a backyard.

Fire pits are often the center of a party. Your guests will naturally want to gather around the fire and chat. It will light up your night and, on a cool evening, can make everyone feel a little cozier.

There are even fire pits designed for use with cooking. So whether you want to go elaborate and host a luau or simply roast some marshmallows is up to you.

One of the considerations when choosing a firepit is whether you want to use fire or propane as fuel.

Use your fire pit with your patio or outdoor kitchen; or as a freestanding gathering place in your backyard.

Water Features

From fire, we go to its opposing element. Water features add a peaceful ambiance to your backyard, can attract birds and other animals, and may even be an excellent spot for you to cool off on a warm afternoon.

Small water features might include a birdbath or pond. You may also consider a fountain or waterfall. Water features go particularly well within flower beds and around rock and stone elements.

Stones and Rocks

Rocks and stones require no upkeep, go well by themselves or within a flower bed, and are a striking addition to any landscape.

Small rocks can be used as mulch among your flower beds or in a rock garden. Strategically placed boulders around your property add vertical interest points and maybe even a spot to sit.

Whether integrating stone into your existing gardens or creating a stand-alone element, rocks and boulders add earthy allure to your yard.

Retaining Walls

Sometimes your hardscaping isn’t just beautiful; it’s functional. For example, retaining walls can give your gardens a decorative container to stand out in and help prevent erosion from becoming a problem on your property.

Retaining walls can be built into hillsides to keep the structural integrity of your property or around a manufactured hill that houses your flower, rock, or vegetable garden.

Even if you’re adding a retaining wall primarily for structural purposes, there’s no reason it can’t be a gorgeous addition to your property that is an attraction in its own right.

Walkways

You’ve put a lot of work and thought into your landscape design. You’ve installed garden beds, added hardscaping, and kept your lawn meticulously trimmed. Now you want to ensure you keep your guests where you want them!

Walkways are both lovely and functional. You can use them to keep people from walking on your grass and to draw them from one well-planned garden bed to another or your patio. They focus both movement and the eye on the parts of your yard where you want to draw focus.

Walkways can be rustic, like stone pavers placed one after the other, or elaborate, like poured concrete shaped to suit your tastes. Whatever you’re looking for in your walkways, M1 can provide it.

Better Enjoy Your Outdoor Living Space

Your outdoor living space can use organic features and hardscaping to create the yard of your dreams, but a few enhancements will help you enjoy them better. The following items are used as a part of or in conjunction with hardscaping to create a seamless blend of style and function.

Drains

When hardscaping is added where turf used to be, you will need to accommodate for runoff. In LA, rain is rarely a concern, but it needs somewhere to go when it does rain.

Adding drains around your hardscaping can help to direct water to the plants that need it and prevent it from flooding your home or lawn.

Landscape Lighting

You’ve created a beautiful living space! Your friends, family, and neighbors flock to your home for barbeques, dinner parties, and evening drinks. What happens when it gets dark?

You don’t always want the fun to end at sundown. If you’ve gone through the trouble of creating a patio, flower beds, and a generally outstanding landscape, you want people to be able to enjoy it!

Landscape lighting should be incorporated into your yard, especially your hardscaping so that all the work you’ve put into your home can be enjoyed whenever you like. Plus, landscape lighting also makes movement safer and late-night mischief less likely to occur.

Don’t Be Hard Headed.

So, having a hard time figuring out why you haven’t gotten hardscaping yet? Thinking about adding a patio, fire pit, or other feature to your landscape? Got something you don’t like you want to replace?

M1 is here to help!

Demolish, design, build, maintain. We won’t make it hard on you.