Paving the Way to a Brilliant Landscape

As any landscape designer will tell you, a garden is not just about grass, mulch, flowers, bushes and trees. Landscaping is also about hardscapes (walkways, patios and terraces). These not only offset your garden; they give you the secure space and footing with which to enjoy it. Pavers can be set close together with concrete joints or spaced apart, with grass peeking through for a checkerboard effect. They can be stone (bluestone, limestone, granite), brick and concrete (precast and poured-in-place). What they can’t be is just thrown down willy-nilly. The ground must first be excavated, leveled and hard compacted before your lasagna-like layers of gravel or stone pieces, paver sand and a landscape cloth can provide an even setting for your jewel-like pavers. It’s a tough, dirty, expensive job compounded by the Covid-induced shortage of supplies of all kinds.

Still, nothing screams “curb appeal” like attractive hardscaping – often the first thing someone notices about your home. With the summer entertainment season approaching, now is a great time to check out your pavers and see if they need to be raised, replaced or fitted with new joints or a railing for safety’s sake. And it’s never too early to start thinking about what eats away at them – snow, ice and salt. Experts say calcium chloride threads the needle between effective deicing and paver preservation. 

Questions? We at the Morano Group are here to help you with your landscaping and hardscaping needs.