Introduction to Hard

Landscaping
Hard landscape is what gives the garden its structure; it is the gardens
skeleton holding all the other components together as a cohesive
being. Walls, fences, paving, ponds, decorative structures, and steps
all are considered hard landscape elements. The proportion of hard
landscape will vary, but even the very simplest natural schemes will
have some element of hard landscape. Therefore as a landscape
designer knowledge of the materials available and their method of
construction is an essential part of the creative process and is vital in
the design of unique practical schemes.

Feasibility of Design
It is all very well to draw a scheme on a one dimensional piece of
paper or build a 3D computer model, to render it makes it look even
better, but can it be built? The landscape designer must specify
features that can be transferred from the mind of the designer into
reality. The ability to deliver imaginative cutting-edge features comes
from deep understanding of the materials, their limitations and the
way they are put together. Knowledge of the basic methods and
principles of construction will allow regular elements such as walls and
paving to be built and will also promote creative use of simple
elements such as stone, timber and metals as the designer pushes the
boundaries of these principles.
Many hard landscape elements have much more to their construction
than meets the eye; the excavation and casting of a foundation for a
structure, the inclusion of a separate chamber for a formal pools
filtration system, even the weight of a single feature stone and its
handling implications, all will have an impact the budget of a
scheme. What appears a simple element in a design may have
hidden elements that could make construction of the feature
unfeasible or beyond budget.

klc school of design

-1-

Design of Detail
The ways of dealing with the spatial challenges of a site are limited.
The creative use of hard landscape detail can make the difference
between a functional scheme and a stunning designed space, often
though the ground patterns are similar. Choice and colour of
materials and their proportion can influence the feel and the style of
the space; laying patterns can create false perspective making a
garden look larger or wider and can even induce the user to move
quickly through a space; the addition of edge details can give
textural interest and break up a space. All add detail to a scheme
and greatly enhance the quality of design.
Choice of hard landscape materials and their use is an integral part of
the design process and should be considered constantly whilst
composing a scheme. It is an unwise choice to design a space and
impose a material upon it at a later date, as the material type will
drive the design of the space at the same time as the type of space
dictates the materials used.

Project Management
Without an understanding of hard landscape, details provided to the
contractor will be sketchy. It will not be possible to write detailed
specifications or provide construction detail drawings, making
quotation for works unreliable and subjective and a competitive
tender situation unfeasible.
Detailed construction drawings prevent landscape elements
becoming interpretations of the designers idea - watered down
versions, for ease of construction by the contractor. Full specifications
enable the designer to convey exactly how they would want the
element constructed, helping to ensure it is built as envisaged and
saving time often wasted by having to visit site to resolve construction
issues.
At the very least, understanding how elements are built makes
communication on site easier and instils confidence in the contractors
of the designer and the design.

Choice of Hard Landscape Materials

General design principles such as unity, harmony, scale, proportion
and balance all apply to the selection of hard landscape materials
klc school of design

-2-

when creating successful visual compositions. However due to their

physical nature and their dominance within the built environment,
many other considerations also have to be made.
1. Affinity with site in the past, due to limited infrastructure and
transport systems, each region had its own vernacular style of
building. In the UK, this could be red brick and flint in Norfolk,
sandstone in Bath, or golden yellow brick in London. Now as
transport, communication and trade has improved, most
building materials are available nationwide, if not worldwide,
resulting in less defined regional architecture. When faced with
the massive choice of materials now available care should be
taken ensure the materials chosen link with the architecture and
local building materials. Notice of these should be taken at the
time of the site survey and even the subtlest of links to the local
material will make the garden sit comfortably in its surroundings.
2. Style and character - this will also be driven by the architecture
of the house. A thatched cottage for example would be
complemented with a garden built using handmade or
reclaimed bricks. Elements would be soft and irregular and
materials would need to convey a feeling of warmth and
cosiness. Contemporary new builds however would need
materials to be crisp and clean; steel and glass could feature
and stone materials would be smooth and regular. Some
architectural styles such as Victorian and Georgian town houses
have the ability to be comfortable with varied styles - quite
often the style of the garden and the materials selected being
in harmony more with the interior design style than that of
architecture.
3. Rural or urban the relative proportion of hard elements such as
houses and other buildings to soft elements such as farmland
needs to be considered when designing the hard landscape
spaces of a scheme. In rural areas where the general
proportion of hard elements to soft is low, this should be
reflected in the garden itself, the reverse being true in urban
areas where it would be perfectly acceptable for a garden to
be almost all hard landscape and in keeping with the lack of
local green space. Rural or urban will also influence the
materials specified as this will have an impact on the style and
character of an area. A timber post and rail fence at the foot of
a country garden will blend seamlessly with those surrounding
the fields and graffitied wall will not look out of place in an inner
city garden.

klc school of design

-3-

4. Suitability the specific use will determine the suitability of the

material specified for that area. Flagstones laid as a rigid
structure would not be suitable for areas used by vehicles as
they would crack under load, and unbound gravel would not
be suitable for areas where tables and chairs are going to be
used. Consideration of the proposed use at the time of design
will ensure any materials specified are suitable for their use.
5. Performance and durability how the material will perform
relates to the physical size and method of laying and its direct
suitability for the job it is performing. Durability is how the
material will perform over a period of time. Whether timber is
treated or a brick is frost resistant, for example, will affect
durability.
6. Aspect the amount of sunlight on a material will directly affect
its suitability and durability. Decking boards in a north-facing
garden with little light will become slippery and high levels or
damp in a temperate climate will drastically reduce durability
even of treated timber. High light intensity can also cause
problems of reflection with very light coloured materials and UV
rays can cause fading of some materials.
7. Budget this affects all aspects of projects, but as hard
landscape unit costs are higher in proportion to soft landscape,
correct selection of hard landscape materials to suit clients
budgets becomes more important. Landscape designers should
familiarise themselves with unit costs of materials so they do not
raise expectations at the design stage only for them to be
dashed when the project is costed.

Basic Hard Landscape Materials

Before looking at the way hard landscape elements are constructed it
is important to first understand the constituent parts used in the mixes
and courses of landscape structures.
Cement - manufactured by combining a homogenous blend of
carefully proportioned raw materials (limestone or chalk and clay/
shale/ sand) at a very high temperature (14500C) in a rotary kiln. The
raw materials fuse together to form 'clinker', a hard granular material.
The clinker is ground to a powder and gypsum added to make
cement. Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) now also known as CEM1,
is most commonly used throughout the world and is the binding agent
in mortars and concrete.

klc school of design

-4-

Lime manufactured in a similar way to cement but using only

limestone or chalk as the raw material. The resulting product known as
quicklime, is not suitable for building as when water is added a violent
chemical reaction generating heat takes place. The process of
adding water to lime is known as slaking, and was once carried out on
site; it is now part of the manufacturing process resulting in hydrated
lime. Hydrated lime is used as a binding agent for lime mortar and is
added as plasticiser to OPC mortar to make it more workable and
flexible.
Aggregates these are dug from pits or dredged from river beds or
the sea. They are mixed with cement or lime to form mortars or
concrete or are used as part of a hard landscape structure or in their
own right as a surface material. Aggregates are graded by being
passed through sieves or varying sizes. For classification purposes
aggregates that will pass through a 5mm sieve are known as fine
aggregate or sand, and those coarser than 5mm are coarse
aggregates or shingle.
Soft sand a fine sand of regular quartz particles, often with a clay
content of 10% or more, also known as building sand, and is used as
the filler in mortars. The red colour of soft sand is due to the presence
of iron oxide; this varies from source to source so where colour
matching of mortar is important it should be bought from the same
supplier throughout a project.
Sharp sand or grit sand has a low clay content and a greater
proportion of larger grain sizes. It is used as a laying course for paving
and for a filler in fine concrete.
Jointing sand - is used to fill the joints of block paving and is specially
selected to have a very low clay content and have grain sizes that will
generate a high degree of friction, thereby giving stability and
resistance to loading in a block paving. This is sometimes also known
as Kiln dried silica sand.
Silver sand - is a sand with a very low iron content. Its neutral silver
colour a result of it being almost pure silica (SiO2) and there being
virtually no contamination with other minerals. It has limited uses in
construction but is sometimes used where white joints in brickwork are
required. For fine renovation works it is mixed with lime putty to form a
white mortar capable of very thin joints.
Grit - grit has particles 2-6mm in size and is sometimes used as a
surface dressing. It can also be used to open up clay soils and for use
as a decorative mulch in pots.

klc school of design

-5-

Gravel and shingle a non-specific term for granular material which

can be of almost any rock type. It is usually between 2mm and 60mm
in size and may be rounded, if from a marine source, or angular if a
quarried and crushed product. Gravels can be of almost any colour,
depending on the parent rock type. Pea shingle has water rounded
granules 5 - 10mm in size and is used for bedding drainage pipes and
as a surface dressing. Gravels and shingles are graded by the size of
the particles; 20mm shingle contains only granules of this size whereas
20mm down contains particles from 20mm down to 2 mm.
Combined aggregate also known as all in ballast, is a mixture of
gravel or small stone mixed with grit sand. It is the main filler
constituent of concrete.
Geotextile a relatively new material to landscape and construction,
geotextiles are permeable fabrics which have the ability to separate,
filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Typically made from polypropylene
or polyester, geotextile fabrics come in three basic forms: woven, used
for weed suppressing (eg Mypex), needle punched, a felt-like weedsuppressing and stabilisation membrane, or heat bonded, a nonwoven white fabric in a number of thicknesses, used for stabilisation,
pool underlay and filtering in drainage systems (Terram).
Hoggin a naturally occurring mixture of clay, sand and gravel to
form a material that compacts well and provides a usable, traditional
and stable surface at low cost. Hoggin can be supplied graded but
often comes as dug containing large pieces of stone. Its main use is
for paths, as the surface its self or dressed with shingle.
MOT Type 1 due to its use for road building this material takes its
name from the Ministry of Transport (MOT), now defunct - this material
is now known as DTp Type 1. It is a granular material of crushed stone
containing fines (dusty material) and larger granules not exceeding
37.5mm in size and used almost as the industry standard for sub bases
in landscape works.
Crushed limestone an alternative sub base material, usually only
available where the local bed rock is of limestone. When used for subbases it can be supplied with fines or when used for making up levels
can be supplied clean, i.e. 50mm clean crushed limestone.

Concrete
Concrete is a compound material made from sand, gravel and
cement which solidifies and hardens after mixing with water due to a
chemical process known as hydration. The water reacts with the
klc school of design

-6-

cement, which bonds the other components together, eventually

creating a stone-like material. The proportions of the sand (fine
aggregate), gravel (coarse aggregate), cement and water are
varied to give concretes different strength and workability properties.
Concrete is graded according to its characteristic strength after 28
days of curing, with a Class 7.5 mix being a relatively weak concrete
for fill purposes or for bedding of kerbs (this is often referred to as a
lean mix), while a C30 mix is a relatively strong mix suitable for cast insitu work and load-bearing applications and is referred to as fatty mix.
The proportions of constituents are given as a ratio, cement to fine
aggregate to coarse aggregate. Below are the main mixes, their
proportions and uses:
Grade
Proportion Use
C7.5
1:3:6
Setting fence posts, haunching and bedding
of
edges and kerbs
C20
1:2:4
General concrete surfaces, foundations and
bases
C30
1:1:2
High strength work and water proof cast
works
For small residential garden works it is acceptable to state the mix
ratio for contractors to mix the concrete on site, for larger works it is
advisable to specify a graded concrete and for this to be delivered to
site as a ready mixed material, guaranteeing quality and mix
consistency. When mixed on site the contactor will used combined
aggregate (all in ballast). Therefore the ratios quoted should add
together the values for fine and course aggregates, i.e. C7.5 mix is a
ratio of 1:9 OPC to combined aggregate.

Mortar
Mortar is a material used in construction to bind bricks and blocks
together and fill the gaps between them, known as pointing. It is a
mixture of soft sand, a binder such as cement or lime, and water, and
is applied as a homogenous mix which then sets hard. Often
incorrectly referred to as cement, mortar is known on site in many
slang terms such as compo and muck!
Every mortar should:
have sufficient strength for the purpose for which it is
required. It should never be stronger that the brick it will used
to bed
be workable and easy to handle
klc school of design

-7-

have a good bond with the surface of the material to be

bedded
be resistant to frost and chemical attack

The bulk or filler ingredient for mortar is soft sand; this is combined with
a binder and a plasticiser. Plasticisers make the mortar flow, and
therefore more workable, by incorporating tiny bubbles into the mix.
Lime is a natural plasticiser but it is now more common to add a liquid
plasticiser to the mix, such as Febmix, or to use masonry cement which
contains a powdered plasticiser in its formulation.
As with concrete the proportions of the constituents are also given as
a ratio, this time of cement to lime to sand where lime is used as the
plasticizer, or as a ratio of just cement to sand where an artificial
plasticiser is used. For brickwork, mortars are divided into classes with
Class I being the strongest and Class V being the weakest. For most
domestic garden works a Class II mix of one part OPC to four parts
sand is adequate for most applications.
Prior to the development of OPC, lime was used exclusively as the
binder for mortar. Lime mortar lacks the strength of conventional
mortar but is more flexible and is softer in appearance. When working
on period properties and renovation sites it still may necessary to
specify the use of lime mortar.

Damp Proof Membrane (DPM)

Sometimes referred to as the damp proof course (DPC), this is a strip or
layer of waterproof material such as plastic, bitumen strip or polythene
that is built into a structure to prevent the ingress of moisture. On most
modern houses a DPM is built in at doorstep level and can usually be
identified by a black line within the mortar or an enlarged joint in the
brickwork. It is very important that any landscape works do not breach
this membrane, as constructing structures or beds against or close to
the walls above this level will cause damp to penetrate the structure
causing long term damage. It is general practice for all surface
materials to be laid 150mm below the DPM to prevent these
problems. Where site conditions prevent this paving should be laid
150mm away from the wall and the gap filled with loose gravel. This
gravel then acts as a splash trap absorbing energy from falling rain
and preventing breach of the DPM.

klc school of design

-8-