With a little imagination and some careful planning you can create hardscaping you'll love for years to come.
The full picture
Before you start, look at your garden landscape as a whole. As much as you can, consider the entire area available to you for hardscaping before you design an element, even if you're just tackling one space for now.
At the bare minimum you should plan a design for the whole area, or consult a professional to create a design for you."If you don't consider the site comprehensively, it's like building one room of a house, and then a year or so later, a second room. You may decide to plop down a patio, and then decide you want a braai area, pond or walkway and the patio blocks your plan.
Lie of the land
Delve into draining issues. People, even professionals, think they have good drainage so they go ahead and add some hardscaping. But you must plan how the drainage will be affected when you place, say, a wall or a patio. If the new object is now blocking the previous path of drainage, you can't just say, 'But it was draining great before!'"
A treat for the eye
Develop a focal point and a path you want the eye to travel. You want the eye to travel towards a destination, and one or two visual elements that make you pause, either visually or literally, like a weeping evergreen with an Oriental lantern.
Don't plop elements down and expect them to fit in.
Too-linear elements can create the same unnatural feel. You should try to include curves and shapes in a way that the hardscape elements transition gracefully into the rest of the landscape.
Mix and match — but carefully
Select a few materials that complement the interior and exterior of your home. Just as you wouldn't want to listen to someone sing in a monotone, you don't want to have to look at a hardscape with all one colour or material. The idea is to find two or three materials that are visually creative and coordinate not just with each other but with the interior and exterior of the house.
Textural variety is important, too. In most hardscapes, it's okay to have two textures going, for example flagstone underfoot and landscape blocks for low walls, but more than two textures tends to look messy. If a wood deck is part of the picture, try to stick with a single type of stone or brick for your hardscape.
In this rooftop garden [bottom], drought- and wind-resistant plant material such as lavender, sand olive and rosemary finish off the colourful hardscape. Privet in pots will create a hedge for blocking view of the home next door.
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