What is the visual coming to your mind when you hear the word landscaping? We tend to fix our thoughts where there are lots of greens with some colorful flowers. We always ignore the stone, wooden and metal elements that make the landscaping complete. Some landscaping companies in UAE are giving hardscaping as a separate service.
As discussed in the previous blog, landscaping requires good planning. And, the extent of hardscaping should be considered among the major determining factors. Days are gone where landscaping was equated to planting ornamental grass. Nowadays, landscaping companies are providing a considerable amount of hardscaping for better functionality.
Significance of Hardscaping
After discussing so much on the benefits of greens, let’s discuss some of the benefits of hardscaping today. The significance ranges from aesthetics to money savings.
Looks Good on a Garden
Imagine a garden with only greens and some flowers. Also, imagine another one with some stone elements spread uniformly and beautiful metal lamp posts at regular intervals. Which one is better? For most of you the second one will be more appealing.
Hardscaping doesn’t mean filling each and every gap in the greens with elements of stones and bricks. It should be uniform, well arranged and matching to the theme. They need not necessarily be ornamental elements. They can be functional elements like small buildings, nests, swings, slides or any useful elements. Only thing to take care of is the placement of the elements. It won’t be as easy as placing indoor plants.
Functionalities
Just think of a landscaping which is so beautiful that you don’t feel like stepping on its lawn? You will be so annoyed if there isn’t any walkway to explore that landscaping fully. Not just a walkway, what if the garden is missing a place to sit or a room to rest, or missing enough lights to have a good view at night, or missing a framework to install a green wall in the garden?
Hardscaping is a must in almost all functionalities of a garden. And, they are not just limited to leisure and ornamental functionalities. Some of them are basic necessities too. Needless to say, hardscaping and functionalities are complementary.
Water Conservation
Gardening requires water. A lot of water. If you are deciding to add more greens, be ready to spend more on keeping them green with watering and maneuvering as well. However, if you carefully include enough hardscaping elements while landscaping, you can conserve a lot of water. To be precise you can save about 500 liters of water per square meter.
Only time you have to use water on hardscaping is while cleaning them. But, for cleaning the elements of hardscaping, if you have one of the expert landscaping companies in UAE as an AMC consultant, they can do the cleaning task in the minimum amount of water possible.
Outdoor Living
A new trend in landscaping is setting up an area for outdoor living. Considering the fact that the elements in the setup should be waterproof, hardscaping is an inevitable part of it. The idea behind an outdoor living area is to enjoy the landscaping to the fullest. No one can argue on the importance of hardscaping in the outdoor living setup.
Savings
As mentioned in the case of water conservation, hardscaping saves a lot of money in terms of installation, maneuvering, maintenance and replacements. Be it any criteria, hardscaping generally costs way lower than softscaping. Both in installation as well as in maintenance. Also, most of the hardscaping elements don’t require any regular supply. All these makes hardscaping an excellent choice for cost savings. But, keep in mind that too much hardscaping can affect the aesthetics of the total landscaping.
Maintenance is a must
Be it hardscaping or softscaping, there is no compromise in maintenance. Without maintenance any combination of these can turn unpleasant. While softscaping elements need regular care, most hardscaping only requires proper cleaning in regular intervals. However, there will be some elements in hardscaping which need regular maintenance too, like electrical components.
Almost all landscaping companies in UAE are providing garden maintenance services. While only a few give AMC services for gardens. Jazlyne is one among them.
