To better understand how to design for a landscape, the elements that make up the outdoor living areas are referred to as hardscape or softscape. The easiest ways to remember the differences? Hardscaping and softscaping are the complete opposites of each other, yet both are necessary to make a landscape fully functional. Both terms became more familiar with the growing popularity of home and garden TV series that often used the words to emphasize the distinction between the two.


Ideally, a well-designed landscape incorporates a balance between hardscaping and softscaping.

Hardscape elements:

• Can be thought of as "hard," yet movable, parts of the landscape, like gravel, paving and stones, etc.
• They are inanimate objects.
• Solid and unchanging.
• Other examples of hardscape include walkways, retaining walls, pavers for paths or patios, outdoor kitchens, water features, gazebos, decks and driveways.
• Can be natural, like stone, or man-made, like an outdoor structure or a planter.
• Hardscape materials have different effects on the environment. Pavement, which is hardscaping, prevents water from soaking into the soil, thus increasing runoff, which can carry contaminants into streams. Porous materials allow water to soak into the soil.
• A shrub is not hardscape.

Softscape elements:

• Consider these the "soft" horticultural (living, growing) components of the landscape. These might include flowers, trees, shrubs, groundcovers, etc.
• Change and evolve constantly, as they grow and adapt to climate and other conditions.

• Are softer to the touch, quite literally. Think about touching the leaves of a tree or perennial, or blades of grass. They are soft, not hard. 
• A brick wall is not softscape.