The term hard landscape is used by practitioners of landscape architecture and garden design to describe the construction materials which are used to improve a landscape by design. The corresponding term soft landscape materials is used to describe plant materials. A wide range of hard landscape materials can be used, such as brick, gravel, rock or stone, concrete, timber, bitumen, glass, metals, etc. 'Hard landscape' can also describe outdoor furniture and other landscape products.
Landscape products refers to a group of building industry products used by garden designers and landscape architects and exhibited at trade fairs devoted to these industries. It includes: walls, fences, paving, gardening tools, outdoor lighting, water features, fountains, garden furniture, garden ornaments, gazebos, garden buildings, pond liners.
Geosynthetics are another group of products used extensively in landscape construction for drainage, filtration, reinforcement and separation. Geotextiles are used for drainage to either convey or allow water penetration and to prevent the mixing of two different materials; geomembranes are used to contain liquids in ponds or wastes in landfills; geogrids and geocells are used for load support and to increase the bearing capacity of weak soils; and geocells as well as a variety of turf reinforcement mats (TRM) and erosion control blankets (ECB) are used for slope and channel protection and erosion control.