6 - Hard Landscaping Flashcards
What is hard landscaping?
All non-living features in a garden or landscape.
Name some horizontal hard landscaping elements.
- Paths
- Patios
- Steps
- Decking.
Name some vertical hard landscaping elements.
- Walls
- Fences
- Screens
- Pergolas
- Furniture
- Statuary.
What are the benefits and limitations of tarmac as a horizontal hard landscaping material?
Adv
- Hardwearing and functional
- Requires little maintenance
Disadv
- Some find it aesthetically unpleasing
- Can cause excessive runoff in wet weather as not porous.
What are the benefits and limitations of concrete as a horizontal hard landscaping material?
Adv
- Hardwearing
- Low maintenance
- Coloured, it can be used to give the impression of stone or brick.
Disadv
- Visually uninteresting
- Uses a lot of energy to manufacture, not environmentally sustainable.
What are the benefits and limitations of concrete slabs, or reconstituted slabs, as a horizontal hard landscaping material?
Adv
- Wide variety of shapes, colours, sizes available
- Can make geometric patterns, or even crazy paving
- Relatively inexpensive
- Uniform size and thickness, good for ease of laying.
Disadv
- Concrete environmentally unsustainable
- Don’t necessarily age/weather attractively.
What are the benefits and limitations of bricks and blocks as a horizontal hard landscaping material?
Adv
- Durable
- Standard sizes
- Many colours available
- Can be used to create patterns
- Ages well
Disadv
- Can be expensive.
What are the benefits and limitations of natural stone as a horizontal hard landscaping material?
Adv
- Granite extremely hardwearing
- York stone is softly coloured and mellows with age
- Generally weathers/ages attractively
- Can match existing materials (local stone)
Disadv
- Expensive
- Heavy
- Slabs are of unequal thickness, making them tricky to lay.
What are the benefits and limitations of gravel and stone chippings as a horizontal hard landscaping material?
Adv
- Available in a variety of grades/sizes/colours, etc
- Relatively easy to transport and lay
- Cheaper than many other materials
- You can grow plants through it
Disadv
- Weeds can grow through, so need a semi-permeable membrane underneath
- Not a solid surface so not wheelchair or buggy-friendly.
What are the benefits and limitations of wood as a horizontal hard landscaping material?
Adv
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Renewable if sourced correctly
- Hardwood is long lasting if treated
Disadv
- Can become slippery if not cleaned
- Softwood can rot quickly and requires a lot of maintenance.
What are the benefits and limitations of bark chippings as a horizontal hard landscaping material?
What are the benefits and limitations of timber fencing as a material for vertical elements in a garden?
Adv
- Relatively easy and cheap to construct
- Can be designed to suit many different garden styles (from pre-fab panels to picket fences to post-and-rail)
- Lattice designs filter the wind.
Disadv
- Need regular painting or treating with preservative.
What are the benefits and limitations of brick as a material for vertical elements in a garden?
Adv
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What are the benefits and limitations of dry stone as a material for vertical elements in a garden?
Adv
- No mortar is needed
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Very suitable for various types of garden design, from formal to informal, traditional to contemporary, depending how it is finished/used
Disdv
- Successful construction is time-consuming
- Can be unstable if not constructed properly
- Needs a skilled practitioner to build successfully.
What are the benefits and limitations of stone walls as a material for vertical elements in a garden?
Adv
- Can be built from dressed stone or reconstituted stone blocks, which are uniform in size
- Long-lasting
- Using local stone (cotswold stone, flint) fits into the local environment well, adding to sense of place
- Weathers/ages well
Disadv
- materials are expensive
- Construction is expensive.
Name two natural and two-made made materials suitable for the following vertical elements:
- Walls
- Fences
- Screens
- Pergolas
- Furniture
- Statuary.
Walls
York stone
Clay for cob wall
Brick
Concrete
Fences
Timber e.g. larch lap
Bamboo
Plastic
Metal e.g. steel or aluminium
Screens
Hazel or willow hurdles
Bamboo
Plastic
Metal e.g. Corten steel
Pergola
Treated pine
Cedar
Brick
Iron or steel
Furniture
Wood
Natural stone
Resin
Plastic or metal
Statuary
Wood
Natural stone
Resin
Bronze, fibreglass, terracotta.
Describe the various kinds of water feature and the materials necessary to construct them.
Open water. e.g. pond, raised pond, wildlife pond, rills
- Pre-formed plastic liner
- Butyl liner and insulating liner
- Drilled natural stones
- Pump.
Self-contained water feature
- Reservoir (e.g. metal basin, earthenware pot)
- Pre-made water feature
- Pump.
Describe two distinct ways a focal point can contribute to a garden which works and is pleasing to the eye.
- Placing a classical stone statue at the end of a path to draw the eye down and encourage movement along the path
- A standard tree placed in a lawn can draw the eye away from an ugly view in the surrounding area
- A stone fountain can be used in a square pond to emphasise symmetry
- Through the repeated use of a feature colour on focal points throughout the garden.
What is pulhamite and when would you use it?
- Artificial material used to mimic natural stone
- Made from a mixture of cement, rubble and sand
- Invented in Victorian era
- Used in large scale rock gardens, outcrops, hermit’s caves and grottos.
What is hypertufa and when would you use it?
- Artificial substitute for natural porous rock
- Made by mixing cement, sharp sand and peat (or sub)
- Use to cover ceramic sinks to make look like rock, for alpine displays
- Can be used to create your own boulders.
What is puddled clay and when would you use it?
- A traditional method used to create an impermeable lining in a natural pond
- Clay soil is mixed with water to a puddle and spread over the area in layers
- It is puddled by treading repeatedly over the area to force out the air and compress it into a solid mass.
