Investing in your landscaping before putting your home on the market is suggested by 90% of all real estate agents, according to Rocket. Hardscapes are a great way to achieve this! Hardscapes are outdoor features that can improve the architectural design of your landscape. The opportunities for these landscape additions are endless. Some perks of hardscapes include their ability to define yard areas, guide outdoor space traffic, enhance functionality, bring in additional privacy, and increase curb appeal and the value of your home.
As you begin to explore these hardscape options to include in your outdoor space, it’s essential that they elevate your yard and bring some of these benefits. The ideas below include adding a stepping stone path, an outdoor fire pit, a built-in barbeque grill, garden benches, and a pergola. These creative options are bound to elevate your space in the best way possible. Read to get more details about why you should invest in these features!
1. Stepping Stone Path
Adding a stepping stone path to your outdoor space will supply many benefits. First, a stepping stone path is an attractive hardscape addition to direct traffic in your outdoor space. This diversion for traffic can prevent instances of damage to your other landscape areas where you don’t want people walking about. Secondly, the stepping stone path can limit the amount of weed growth by decreasing the amount of living ground cover. Limited weed growth will result in less lawn maintenance work in the future. Third, stepping-stone paths will lower the watering amounts required for proper lawn maintenance. This factor will save you both time, money, and resources!
Stepping stone paths will give you the perfect path to follow when decorating with shrubs and bushes as well. Oftentimes, finding places to put shrubs and bushes is a difficult task, but having a path will create a beautiful guide as to where you can place your shrubbery. This will guarantee people will see your path and utilize it, as it will be difficult to get off the path once you are on it without damaging your plants. The path will provide a safe walking space for anyone who may struggle with mobility issues. Putting shrubbery around the path will give your backyard an air of whimsicality and beauty while keeping your guests on the chosen path ahead of them.
2. An Outdoor Fire Pit
A fire pit can bring additional opportunities for hosting guests and creating an enjoyable outdoor space. A common hardscape to be found in backyards, a fire pit is a great excuse to host guests and roast marshmallows on a cozy summer night. In the colder months, a fire pit gives added warmth to your outdoor space and allows you more opportunities to host celebrations during all months throughout the year. Using an all-natural fire pit allows you to sustainably create heat without the use of natural gas. You will be able to enjoy the heat of a roaring fire without worrying about harming the ecosystem.
A fire pit will also ward off insects in the warmer months. Fires can be vital for those late summer nights with pesky bugs and animals. A fire pit can create a festive mood for outdoor activities after the sun sets without any itchy and annoying distractions. Get ready to be a favored gathering location once this hardscape option is in your outdoor space!
3. A Built-in Barbeque Grill
If you want to create an outdoor kitchen space, a built-in barbeque grill is a must-have addition! This outdoor feature will make it easy to cook delicious meals around friends and family at all times throughout the year. According to Fireplace Doors Online, there are several benefits to having a built-in barbeque grill. One of the biggest benefits is that these grills have lots of space due to their large countertop room. With this space, you can prepare food and store kitchen utensils right next to the grill itself. This makes meal preparation and service easier than ever, with everything all in one easy, accessible place instead of scattered across the room.
Built-in grills are also protected from harmful weathering and animals. Due to the grills being for permanent outdoor use, they are by a wall that will protect them from various weather elements. Rain, snow, sleet, or hail, this grill will be able to survive the elements with just a cover over them during the colder months. This securement is an additional reason why they are long-lasting! Finally, the grills are low maintenance due to their high-grade materials and large size. With the occasional cleaning, your outdoor barbeque grill will maintain itself for years, which makes it the perfect hardscape addition to your yard. Built-in barbeque grills are commonly known to last as long as average kitchen appliances due to their high quality!
4. Garden Benches
Garden benches are great hardscapes that will add to the design look of your home. These benches, created with various materials, come in many styles. Common materials these benches are made out of range from concrete to metals and wood. The variety of styles makes these benches easy to coordinate with the look of your home’s exterior design. Additionally, garden benches are an opportunity to add additional seating areas for guests in your outdoor space. This seating will be perfect when hosting several people. These permanent seating options will successfully direct traffic as well.
Putting in a garden bench will offer a great place for reading outdoors. It can suit as a place to hold material when gardening or landscaping. If you have children, it may serve as a fortress, underground bunker, or castle for their imaginary games. It will also provide a great resting point for any people who visit your home with mobility issues, which will reduce the potential injuries you could have. Due to their sturdy nature, garden benches are long-lasting pieces of outdoor furniture. They will likely last longer than anything else you place outside, making them worth the money you spend on it. Adding a garden bench will successfully make your yard feel like a home.
5. A Shading Pergola
A pergola is a beautiful outdoor structure that will provide shade for your entertaining space. The columns on the top of this outdoor structure create the perfect shade to place outdoor furniture. Adding a pergola to your backyard will also provide necessary shade from the sun on particularly hot days for people who cannot handle the heat well. Additionally, a pergola is a great feature to add to your outdoor space if you have lots of vining vegetation! The columns on a pergola are perfect for looping this vegetation through to watch them grow and thrive! You can let them naturally grow on the loops or allow them to grow by guiding them through the loops yourself. This may take some time, but the lasting image will be worth it in the end.
Lastly, a pergola can help you have a designated outdoor area to get together and celebrate with family and friends! They come in various sizes, colors, shapes, and designs, so finding one that suits your family’s needs will be an easy feat. You can also have them designed or customized to your specific needs if you do not come across one that interests you, so it will fit your backyard’s design perfectly if you are willing to put the extra money in. This investment will definitely be worth it if you are looking to increase the aesthetics of your home and be satisfied with your choices.
6. A Fountain
When designing the perfect backyard, having a water feature will fully round off its look. If you don’t want to spend all that money on a pool, putting in a fountain is the perfect solution. With the variety in styles, sizes, appearances, colors, shapes, and materials used, it will be easy to find a fountain that matches your backyard. Having a constantly flowing water source is a great way to bring a peaceful oasis to your renovated outdoor area. The sound of flowing water is known to be relaxing for many people and will add soothing energy to the home. Adding it to an already existing fish pond or surrounding a stand-alone fountain with plants will create a calm, meditative area for relaxing.
The sound will also be a great way to drown out unpleasant or unwanted noises you may hear in your yard. The soft trickling of your fountain will be a much better addition to your yard as opposed to the loud and irritating sounds the world around you may be emitting. Putting a fountain in will allow you to have a place to water your plants and shrubs as well. It will also be a great invitation for any of the native wildlife to stop by and have a drink! You may spy birds drinking and bathing in the water basin. Larger wildlife may be drawn to the sound of rushing water and begin to regularly visit to provide some exciting and awe-inspiring entertainment.
7. A Brick Patio
One of the best ways to minimize foot traffic on your lawn is to put in a patio. Known for being one of the most common hardscapes, a patio is a flat area of land that is filled with bricks or stone to create an even space for dining or lounging. Patios create a comforting space for evenings watching the stars or summer afternoons while enjoying dinner. These hardscapes are also a great addition to any outdoor celebrations you may have, as they create a flat walking space for anyone who may struggle to get around.
Creating a patio space in your backyard is a great way to get Vitamin D. Keep a shady area in your yard for a space to cool down if needed, but hardscapes like patios give you a great place to soak up the sun’s rays and enjoy the heat of summer. Along with this, adding a patio into your yard raises the value of your home. An untreated backyard will diminish the value of your home, but being able to raise the value of your home by simply installing a patio will make the entire process worth it.
8. A Garden
Though a garden itself does not technically belong on a list of hardscapes, adding a garden to your yard is a beautiful way to introduce plant life into your home. Hardscape elements are easy to incorporate into gardens and tie together the look of your space. Visiting your local garden center to see the types of flowers, shrubs, bushes, and small trees that you can put in your garden will help make the area unique and personalized. Talk to the employees to see if there are any specific plants you want to put in, or if you want something like annuals and perennials to make your garden a beautiful sight every year.
Feel free to pick up additions to your garden that are not plants, like landscaping rocks or mulch for sale. Try to focus the colors on matching your outdoor home decor or accenting anything you may put in your yard like chairs or cushions. Making the garden succinct with the rest of your yard will truly make it feel like it belongs. Add anything you might want to personalize this garden and make it an eye-catching addition to your yard. Adding your hardscapes, such as garden benches and fountains, into the garden is a natural-looking way to combine the components of your yard.
The opportunities are endless for hardscapes in your outdoor space. The key is to find creative options that will increase the functionality and design of your home. Start today and add new features to your outdoor space to improve your life in more than one way. If you’re looking for a landscaping company in Gainesville that you can trust, give Gateway Home & Garden Center a call today. We can help you pick and choose which elements work best with the provided space, and make your yard the place to be!
