Soft landscape materials

The term soft landscape is used by gardeners and practitioners of landscape design, landscape architecture, and garden design to describe the vegetative materials which are used to improve a landscape by design.^[1][2] The corresponding term hard landscape is used to describe construction materials.^[3] The range of soft landscape materials includes each layer of the ecological sequence: aquatic plants, semi-aquatic plants, field layer plants (including grasses and herbaceous plants), shrubs, and trees. Soft landscaping can increase biodiversity in urban areas.^[4]

See also

• Gardening portal

• Hedge (gardening)
• Herbaceous border
• Planting design
• Potting mix

References

1. Evert, Klaus-Jürgen (2010-05-21). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Landscape and Urban Planning: Multilingual Reference Book in English, Spanish, French and German. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 930. ISBN 978-3-540-76455-7.
2. Blake, James (2016-12-05). An Introduction to Landscape and Garden Design. Taylor & Francis. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-351-95876-9.
3. Blake, James (2016-12-05). An Introduction to Landscape and Garden Design. Taylor & Francis. pp. 115–117. ISBN 978-1-351-95876-9.
4. Comerford, Mark (2025-02-26). "Concrete spaces to be converted into soft landscaping areas to 'introduce more biodiversity' into urban Portlaoise". Laois Today. Retrieved 2025-07-01.