Hardscape basically refers to any non-living elements of your landscape; apart from the plants that are the basic features of landscaping, everything else starting from walkways, patios, walls, gazebos and several other related structures are that makeup hardscapes.
The art of arranging hardscapes in a well-done landscape is a significant element of trying to achieve an aesthetically pleasing whole; whether you are installing a garden in that patch of space in form of your home in the city or somewhere in a sprawling countryside, everything needs to work like clockwork for the expected outcomes to emerge.
When people are designing a garden, it is almost obvious that the hardscape will have to be fixed after the rest of the landscape.
This means that your gardener will have to start by assessing the general topography of the land in addition to scouting for the key elements appearing naturally on the landscape so that the hardscape appears to marry naturally into the landscaping.
Consider a garden that is installed in an area that is surrounded by mountains; it should be arranged in such a way that it can complement the view of the mountains so that the garden is integrated with the areas surrounding it.
As uclandscape.com says, among the most popular elements of hardscape that are installed in most places are pathways; this can be made using different materials including crushed gravel, bricks, wood chips, or several other materials.
Pathways can be used to map out a garden and determine how it will flow across the existing landscape in addition to the way that people will interact with it.
Once the soft-scape elements such as shrubs, flowerbeds, and others have been installed, it becomes easier for a gardener to identify the areas where hardscape elements might be desirable; this can include features such as a low rock wall or an entertainment gazebo that could be placed in a pleasant area of your property.
In most cases, the elements associated with hardscape will be permanent or otherwise fixed; there are few cases where they could have been present before the installation of the garden such as in places where you will find large boulders that may have been too difficult to move or other structures that may have existed before the installation of the landscaping.
There are other instances where a garden could get designed around a major hardscape feature such as an outdoor sculpture or a fountain.
Today, gardeners are able to include some mobile elements such as rotating art displays that one can change with the seasons.
Once you get a good gardener, they should be able to expertly combine the elements of hardscape and landscape in such a way that they will complement each other and avoid competing for attention.