There are many types of landscaping. Soft landscaping focuses on the visual appearance of a yard and hard landscaping focuses on materials that will hold up to heavy use. This type of landscaping is less formal and allows homeowners to spend more time doing things like planting flowers and creating pathways. Homeowners with larger yards will typically use hard landscaping as their primary way to keep their yard looking well-kept and well-manicured. Whether you're working on your dream garden or just trying to make your lawn more manicured, there are three main types of landscaping to consider.

Hard landscaping typically refers to projects that encompass the entire lawn and are necessary even before soft landscaping comes into play. If you're going with this type of landscaping, you have plenty of options, but only one landscape option that can't really be classified as soft landscaping. The right irrigation and water absorption system put in place through hard landscaping, along with hard materials that properly move water away from your property can help ensure that your soil becomes more drought-tolerant over the long term. It also makes it easier for you to mow and trim your landscape with ease.

Many people choose hard landscaping because they don't want to mess with soil and because it's usually easier to manipulate plants and shrubs than it is with soft landscaping. There are some limitations with hard landscaping, however. For instance, you have to be careful with slopes because slopes can get too steep. If you have a large amount of snow and ice, hard landscaping may not be the best idea because the effort would be to melt the snow and ice and build a trail on the spot. On the other hand, some kinds of hard landscaping can be fairly forgiving if you keep an eye on plant nutrition. This may sound like common sense, but it's important to remember that plant nutrition is very important to the success of your landscaping project, so make sure you know what kinds of plants you should use.

Another limitation of hard landscaping is limited access. If your property has an underground sewer system, you have to dig a hole down to make it fit. You also have to excavate a hole on the property to locate the pipe or sewer line, then build a trench to insert a trench drain. Some of these systems also require grading of the area to prepare the land for installation, which makes for a lot of back and forth walking between the trench drain and the house.

A final limitation of hard landscaping is the height of the fence. If you're building a fence that goes beyond three feet in height, you have to take that into consideration when planning your landscaping. Some homeowners like to add a trellis system to the fence, but if this is not possible, you may find yourself having to remove some grass around the fence, or have the fence posts taken down. Also, when you're doing a lot of landscaping over a small area, hard landscaping can really work against you. Your grass may not be able to grow because of the lack of nutrients, and your plants may not get enough sunlight to survive.

So what can you do in these situations? One solution is to simply plan your landscaping in advance. Write out how you want things to go, including how long each section of your landscaping will last, how much water you'll need, what kind of weeds you should get rid of, etc. This will make it easier to do some research on hard landscaping before you start.

Landscapers can also help you if you're having a hard time coming up with ideas. Many landscaping companies are available 24 hours a day. Some specialize in hard landscaping only, and others will also do everything from mowing to planting to cleaning up after you're finished. This is especially helpful if you're a new landscaper, because these professionals can give you some helpful pointers that you might otherwise overlook. They can also help walk you through what's involved in landscaping so that you don't get lost. Some landscaping companies also offer classes, seminars, and workshops on all sorts of topics about landscaping to help you improve your techniques and create the garden of your dreams.

While landscaping may seem like a hard job, it doesn't have to be. If you have a good plan and keep to it, you can have beautiful hard landscaping up in no time. It can also be a great way to teach your kids about responsibility. Good landscaping can give you a beautiful garden to enjoy, as well as something that protects your home.