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Landscape Design

Mixed hardscape materials (ie brick + stone)

17 years ago

So this seems to be an element of the landscape that can either look really great- or really disjointed. What are your thoughts on mixing brick, stone, concrete, gravel etc. (not necessarily all of them together but some combination of them). What do you think looks good? Conversely, what looks bad to you? How about mixing formal and informal shapes (like pieces of flagstone in a brick patio) or some other mix.

I've been putting some thought into this for my own yard and how to get the mix of red brick and red-orange flagstone to 'look' right together- if they can look right together. Just thought it might make for some interesting discussion.

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Comments (2)

Saypoint zone 6 CT
17 years ago
Here's my patio when it was almost finished being installed. It doesn't have any irregular shapes, but we used old brick, old granite slabs, and new bluestone.

{{gwi:25396}}
madtripper
17 years ago
In most cases I don't like mixed material, unless one is just an accent in the other. So a few bricks making a design in concrete, or flag stone inserted in a stone patio. But one material should be very dominate.

It also looks better if the two material are used in different areas - two parts of the garden could have different hardscape to differentiate the areas. Although I think that in most cases one type of hardscape would look better.

Stone or flag with gravel in a pathway looks OK, but to me is very impractical. Who wants to walk of gravel sitting on flag? Gravel just does not seem to stay put.

Mixing material may also connect two areas. For example on my square stone patio we plan to insert a few flag to connect to a flag pathway leading away from the patio into a shade garden. It also connects to some armor stones (big gray stones) used to hide the underside of a sun room. I also use a lot of rock in the garden next to the patio. the hope is that it will connect the more formal, square sun room to the very informal, organically shaped garden areas.

The front of my house has a black top (asphalt) driveway (very dominent). At the house end it is bordered by stone pavers, which then leads to a stone step, and a concrete front porch, which is attached to the brick house. The pavers bordering the driveway looks OK - it gives the asphalt some class (if that is possible). The rest does nothing for the house. Just too many types of hardscape.
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Admittedly, I can't see enough of your yard to get a good feel for it. But I'm having the hardest time 'feeling' this project. You seem to have a nice house, nice deck. (Like the brick barbecue/oven.) But so far, what you want to create a better view of, by opening up the deck railing, seems to be a fairly lackluster back yard. The visual destination I see is the lawn itself. The idea of creating something to look at -- the rock/moss/water feature/steps -- immediately off of the deck sounds to me like a nearsighted solution ... and one I'm still believing it full of pitfalls. It seems like you are wanting to create this thing that will be fairly large, expensive and in a prominent position. But it doesn't seem like it is coming about as a result of thinking through an overall plan of how the yard is used. It seems like it is just-the-thing-we-thought-of-next. What is at the bottom of the steps? I would urge you to do more planning for the whole yard and calculate how this project works with it. If it is already done, I would urge you to reveal it. If it is not done, I would urge you to begin by thinking of what you're trying to get out of any investment that you make in landscape -- your overall goals and objectives. (Not how to solve them, but what you expect to have when it is solved .... privacy/beauty/recreational amenities/space for entertaining, etc.)
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Thank you all. The entrance to the front door is a walkway that runs along the front of the house from the driveway. We are in the country so a front yard walkway is not necessary. We also have a septic tank out front. The bird bath marks our lid location. That is part of the reason for us doing some much needed landscaping as it slopes towards the driveway because of the tank the need for a retaining wall etc. I will drop my thought of doing an accent façade and instead concentrate on front door colour????, connecting the side deck to the front walkway-Thank you Patricia-My DH had the same thought and of course better landscaping. There are too many different heights from front walkway to side deck to driveway and it is not necessary so that definitely will be addressed. We are seniors so we are trying to go low maintenance in the gardens as they are too much upkeep right now. DH was thinking of a stone patio in the front over the septic tank which would create some much needed interest in the front yard and open it up to the driveway which is really the main entrance. I will look for some inspiration pictures of that. Again thank you all for getting me onto a straighter path to what this house needs and especially for the need to EMBRACE THE BRICK....LOL!!!!
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