Learn how to use Landscape Products to improve a landscape

by: Karen Lanford

Landscape products mainly refer to building industry products. Such products are used by landscape architects, garden designers as well as landscape designers. The products may vary from vegetative materials to construction materials. While the vegetative materials are known as soft landscape materials the construction materials are known as hard landscape materials.

Soft landscape materials generally consist of layers of ecological sequences. In fact they cover all the ecological sequences from aquatic plants to semi-aquatic plants, from field layer plants such as herbs and grasses to shrubs and trees. Apart from landscape architects and garden designers these products are also used by landscape designers and gardeners.

Hard landscape materials, on the other hand, refer to construction materials used in landscape architecture and garden design. These include a wide range of products such as gravel, timber, brick, glass, rock, stone, metals, concrete, bitumen etc. Hard landscape products may also include certain outdoor furniture that helps to improve the landscape.

Now let us look at how landscape products are used in order to improve a landscape. As mentioned earlier, landscape materials are mainly used in landscape architecture, garden design and landscape design. Let us discuss how these fields improve a landscape.

Garden design is an art. As the name suggests through garden designing professionals beautify a landscape or garden. The job is easier said than done as it calls for a lot of planning, creating layout and most importantly useful utilization of both soft and hard landscape products. The choice of these products varies according to the time and budget constraints of the project.

Landscape architecture pushes the envelope a little more and improves the aesthetics of a public/outdoor space. It is a multi-disciplinary field and is almost like a melting pot of various fields such as botany, architecture, geography, fine arts, horticulture, geology, earth sciences, industrial design, ecology as well as environmental psychology. With the help of landscape products landscape architects improve the visuals of an external space, while keeping in mind the ecological sustainability of the design. Examples of landscape architectures mostly include creation of public parks, office parks as well as management of large wilderness. Central Park in the New York City is one of the most popular exhibits of landscape architecture.

Finally, landscape design encompasses the nuances of landscape architecture and garden design. It has a wider arc that includes urban planning and interdisciplinary projects of larger scales. It integrates garden design into landscape planning of a property using the landscape products available within the property.