If you are looking to add upgrades to your landscape, whether for your own personal wants or to prepare to sell your home, consider hardscaping improvements. To maximize your investment, think of hardscaping as a way to improve your property so that it is more “green” and low maintenance. The key is to blend the living environment with hardscaping elements so that they benefit wildlife and provide healthy outdoor spaces.
4 ways to add hardscaping to your landscape
Walkways
Add a gravel or paved walkway through your garden. This allows you to enjoy the garden with a material that is low-impact. When choosing gravel or natural stone as the material for your walkway, you can avoid the harsh chemicals that are found in asphalt and use a more environmentally-friendly surface compared to concrete. Plus, gravel and natural stone have naturally high permeability rates so water can flow through them instead of as run-off, helping to minimize erosion.
Patios
Get rid of the concrete pad and install a patio with flagstone that is low maintenance and gorgeous. This is a luxury that is hot in today’s marketplace. Flagstone is natural so it works well in blending your outdoor area with the surrounding environment. And if you convert a place where grass is hard to grow for your new patio, you can further maximize your outdoor space with a low-input material that reduces your maintenance. You’ll have more time to relax and less time needing to mow, weed, seed, or otherwise waste your energy maintaining the area.
Retaining Walls
Stone retaining walls are some of the best ways to help conserve water and minimize soil erosion in your landscape. By adding a drywall stone wall to a sloping area, you can better control erosion while using a material that is hard and durable. Plant some low maintenance groundcover behind the wall and you’ll have a feature that can be appreciated for years.
Garden Features
Incorporating in stone water fountains or ponds can help attract wildlife while also filling in areas that minimize your maintenance. Interspersing stone garden features in your landscape can help reduce the need to buy plants and other landscaping products, and they are durable and long-lasting. Consider constructing a pond that is surrounded by various sizes of boulders or riverrock, or design a water fountain with thin stone veneer.
It’s important to blend your hardscaping in with your natural landscape to maximize value in your home. People want to see something that is appealing besides being “green”. Too much greenery can be intimidating to a person who doesn’t want to spend all their time in the garden, while too much “hardscaping” can be overly intimidating to someone who wants to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors.
Fieldstone Center, Inc. has stone products for all your landscaping needs. Contact us at 770-385-7708. We can help you decide on the best upgrades to add to your landscape with the right stone for an amazing result!