How To Soften Hard Landscaping
Netbiz ✈️ |
Traditionally, hard landscaping hasn’t held quite the same place within landscaping circles that soft landscaping does. It’s a sad fact to admit but it’s true. There are several reasons for this, including:
- Soft landscaping requires constant maintenance, and so is much ‘harder’ for the average person to do.
- Hard landscaping doesn’t involve living things and thus isn’t likely to change in the day to day.
- Hard landscaping is laid by a tradesperson, whereas soft landscaping is completed by an artisan.
But a few gatekeepers looking down on an artform is not a reason to look down on it yourself. The fact of the matter is that hard landscaping is a fantastic way to reinvigorate a piece of land. And what’s more we’d argue that hard landscaping is the better choice for most people.
For one, most people simply do not have the time to look after a constantly changing landscaping project. Hard landscaping allows you to just have a beautiful landscape.
In this article, we’ll be going over two surefire ways of softening your hard landscaping – making it your own and beautifying it.
Tip 1: Blur Boundaries Between Hard and Soft
Our first tip is to ensure that you feel free to mix your hard and soft landscaping fixtures in a way that feels natural to you. For example, let’s say you’ve had your driveway re-done using a material like NatraTex Cotswold – a bright, coloured surfacing product that contrasts well with grey tarmac to create a friendly, warm environment that you’ll love.
NatraTex Cotswold is a good choice by itself; however, to take it to the next level you could look to blurring the lines between hard and soft landscaping. There are a few relatively simple ways of doing this.
For example, instead of having the lawn edge meet the surface, you could have a flower bed between the two. Or you could have a small path of NatraTex material that wades into the lawn – this would look particularly good on larger lawns. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to keep the layout of your space as is, you can just have a few plants dotted about the space.
Tip 2: Mix Colours To Emulate Nature
One of the best ways that you can soften your landscaping project is by making sure that your hard landscaping projects features a rich mixture of colours and doesn’t just have a single mono-colour – especially not a grey colour.
For example, let’s say that you’re looking to redo your front driveway. Traditionally, you’d be looking at using concrete or traditional black tarmac. That would look fine, of course – perhaps a little boring.
Alternatively, you could look at using a material such as NatraTex Colour – Natratex’s own colour product. By itself, Natratex Colour looks great – especially when a colour such as NatraTex Red is paired against a grass lawn. If you don’t have a grass lawn, you can use multiple colours on your hard landscaping project to create a beautiful collage that is sure to grab attention while still appearing designed.
The reason why this is so effective is that we naturally associate a mixture of colours with the natural world and mono colour with industrial landscaping. By mixing colours, we are triggering that part of our brains and tricking it.
Decorative Hard Landscaping From NatraTex today
For over ten years, NatraTex has provided our clients with beautiful high-quality surfacing products. Eschewing traditional bitumen or resin materials, NatraTex is manufactured from a long lasting bespoke material. This ensures that any decorative paving or landscaping designs made from our material can stand the test of time.
For more information about our range of decorative hard landscaping products, contact NatraTex today.
