Hoping to make the most of your outdoor areas this summer? Bringing your garden back to life often requires a little more than just tidying up the flowerbeds and putting up some hanging flower baskets. The key for any garden landscaping project is to find the right balance between nurturing the natural elements and installing new structural features, so make the right choice for your property this spring with our soft and hard landscaping services.

Our Staffordshire Landscape Services

We have been landscaping Lichfield gardens for over 30 years, so we know exactly how to make your garden the best it can be. Whether you’ve got a redesign proposal for your office outdoor spaces, or big plans for a relaxing garden at home, we offer our landscaping services as separate services or a complete package to transform your outdoor area into an inviting, practical space for everyone to enjoy.

Before we get started on how these two types of landscaping work together, let’s first take a look at what they each involve:

1. Soft Landscaping

This landscaping approach refers to the upkeep and maintenance of a garden’s ‘soft’ materials, including plants, grass, trees and flowers. As these natural elements are always changing with the seasons, it is important to structure the design to encourage their growth and work with them to keep the space in good order all year round.

As well as the ecological benefits of caring for these plants, these landscaping projects also provide gardens with habitats for wildlife and carry out important functions in the garden, such as encouraging natural drainage and supporting biodiversity.

2. Hard Landscaping

Hard landscaping tends to be overlooked when it comes to ongoing garden maintenance, as it involves the construction and installation of garden structures and usually isn’t required outside of a large-scale redesign project.

However, this form of landscaping isn’t just about building patios and replacing weather-damaged garden walls. It also refers to any non-plant focused landscaping, so any man-made features that prevent soil erosion, improve drainage routes and protect the gardens’ existing wildlife fall under this scope.

Landscaping Your Lichfield Garden

When choosing between hard or soft landscaping, the first step is to remember that these different approaches work best when they are combined into the same design.

It’s a good idea to start off any project by deciding on the functional elements first; do you want to build a deck with an outdoor dining set, or a relaxing firepit with built-in seating? Do you want a designated play area for your little ones, or a quiet reading spot surrounded by trees and shade? Or do you want to build an accessible pathway to help visitors navigate through the outdoor space, and prioritise drain-off routes to prevent seasonal flooding? Hard landscaping should always serve a purpose within your garden, so make sure you choose the right elements to help you make the most of your space.

Once you have decided on the hard structural elements, it’s time to choose the natural elements that will grow and embed themselves into your lasting garden design. These landscaping elements should take up the vast majority of your space, so think of hard elements as a way to add structure and functionality amongst the plants, and let the soft elements grow in the spaces between them without overpowering the balanced design. Go for plants that you love that will flower across the seasons, or ones that have been chosen to serve a purpose; for example, plants that provide shade from the summer sun, or encourage animals to find a home amongst the greenery.

Whatever your vision is, a harmonious combination of hard and soft elements will create an inviting, intentionally-designed space that welcomes all those who enter it. So, keep your outdoor spaces looking and functioning as well as your indoor ones with our hard and soft landscaping services.

Getting Started

If you’re looking for garden landscaping in Lichfield, or further afield, our Staffordshire landscape services are on-hand for your next garden redesign project.

Whether you need a practical design, a relaxing space, or a quick project on a budget, we will work with you to transform your outdoor spaces, so contact us today for a free quote.