Let’s face it. Winter is all but here. There are some things you can do to enhance the winterscape outside your windows while you stay inside. As a means of landscape design for your Bloomington area home, we are going to take some time to focus on your hardscaping–the paving, the patio, the hard surfaces (not natural) that you have had installed. Our technicians in landscape design also install other sorts of hardscaping items like retaining walls, outdoor fire pits, pergolas and lighting. The key to their aesthetic appeal in wintertime is maintenance. Keep them clear of snow and ice so that they can be a focal point throughout the dead months. 

When the plants go through their dormant stages in winter, it is awful nice to have a landscape design that has implemented some hardscaping. Your eyes and those of others will be drawn less to the sleeping trees and shrubbery that you possess and more to the pop that a master in landscape design has added to your property. There are so many things that you can do to enjoy lawn and garden, even while they sleep or are covered by snow and ice.

You will want to actively take care of your hardscaping during the winter months. Should you slack off here, you may just encounter a repair project or two in the spring, after the thaw. Be mindful of salt usage. If you apply it but let it sit, without removing it or the slush generated, it will eat away at or even stain any concrete, paver or stone that has been incorporated into your landscape design. Stay on top of it! In the grand scheme it does not take more than accumulated minutes for de-icer to do its work. Be there to get rid of it when needed. 

If you have had a nice and fancy patio installed, chances are that you have some metal containing furniture placed upon it. Do not let these items sit outside and bear the brunt of all that winter has to offer. Take them inside, use them again as you knew them in the spring. A side effect of leaving these metallic items outside is that if they are under snow or ice the rust that emerges will also stain the hardscaping below it.

The real key to landscape design with regard to hardscaping lies in how well it was installed. A winter surviving landscape design of this sort will need a good solid base and options for drainage. Snow and ice accumulate, mass, ultimately melting. The melt should not pool or sit on the surface of your hardscaping only to refreeze. A landscape design installed via hardscaping professionals should be set up adequately to allow this to occur. 

If you would like more information on our landscape design skills in Bloomington, call Advanced Irrigation at 612-599-8675, or you can contact us and get a Free Estimate.