Hard Landscaping vs Soft Landscaping: What's the Difference?
If you've started planning a garden project, you'll have come across the terms 'hard landscaping' and 'soft landscaping'. They're the two halves of every garden, and understanding the difference helps you plan, budget and brief a landscaper properly. Here's a clear explanation from a garden designer, plus how the two work together to make a garden that's more than the sum of its parts.
What Is Hard Landscaping?
Hard landscaping (sometimes called 'hardscaping') refers to all the built, non-living elements of a garden, the permanent structure. It includes:
- Paving, patios and terraces
- Paths, steps and driveways
- Walls, retaining walls and raised beds
- Decking, pergolas and garden structures
- Fencing, screens and boundaries
- Water features (the built element) and the groundworks and drainage beneath it all
Hard landscaping is the 'bones' of the garden, it defines the layout, creates the usable spaces, and provides the framework that everything else sits within. It's also the most technically demanding and, typically, the most expensive part of a project.
What Is Soft Landscaping?
Soft landscaping refers to all the living, growing elements of a garden, the planting. It includes:
- Trees, shrubs and hedging
- Flower beds, borders and perennial planting
- Lawns and lawn alternatives
- Ground cover and climbers
- The soil, compost and mulch that support it all
Soft landscaping brings the garden to life, colour, texture, movement, scent and seasonal change. It softens the hard structure, connects the garden to nature, and is what makes a built space feel like a living garden rather than an outdoor room.
Hard vs Soft Landscaping: Side by Side
| Aspect | Hard Landscaping | Soft Landscaping |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Built, non-living elements | Living, growing elements |
| Examples | Paving, walls, decking, steps | Plants, trees, lawns, hedging |
| Role | Structure, layout, usable space | Life, colour, softness, seasonality |
| Cost share | Higher - around 70% of budget | Lower - around 30% of budget |
| Changes over time | Permanent and stable | Grows, matures and changes with seasons |
| Maintenance | Low- occasional cleaning/repair | Ongoing - pruning, feeding, seasonal care |
How the Two Work Together
Too much hard landscaping and a garden feels stark, hot and lifeless, an outdoor car park. Too much soft landscaping without structure and it feels shapeless and hard to use. Great garden design is the art of balancing the two: enough hard landscaping to create usable, well-defined spaces, and enough soft landscaping to bring them to life. This is what a designer does, and why the balance matters more than either element alone.
The 70/30 Rule
As a rule of thumb, most garden projects allocate around 70% of the budget to hard landscaping and 30% to soft landscaping. This is because building work, groundworks, paving, walls and structures, is materials- and labour-intensive, while planting, though not cheap, costs less per square metre. Understanding this split helps you budget realistically: the amount of hard landscaping in your design is the biggest single factor in the cost. A good designer uses this balance deliberately, sometimes reducing hard landscaping in favour of planting to control budget while keeping impact.
Getting the Balance Right in an Irish Garden
In Ireland specifically, the balance has some local nuances. Our wet climate means drainage (part of hard landscaping) is critical, skimp on it and both your paving and your planting suffer. At the same time, our mild, damp conditions are wonderful for planting, so soft landscaping thrives here with relatively little effort, which is an argument for making the most of it. The best Irish gardens use quality hard landscaping to create usable, well-drained spaces, then bring them to life with generous, climate-appropriate planting. See our garden landscaping service to see how LandArt balances the two across Dublin gardens.
LandArt handles both hard and soft landscaping in-house, designing, building and planting complete Dublin gardens with one accountable team. GLDA designers, Best of Houzz. See our garden landscaping service or request a quote.
Balance Hard and Soft Landscaping With LandArt
LandArt designs, builds and plants complete Dublin gardens with one accountable team, getting the balance between structure and planting right from the first sketch to the final plant.
