Landscaping Glossary

Contractors throw a lot of jargon at homeowners. Here's what the words on your estimate actually mean — 88 terms, in plain English, with no sales pitch attached.

88 terms

Design, Grading & Drainage 12 terms

Hardscape: The non‑living, built parts of a landscape — patios, walkways, retaining walls, steps, fire pits. Hardscape gives a yard its structure.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Softscape: The living parts — turf, trees, shrubs, perennials, groundcover. Softscape fills in the structure hardscape creates.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Grading: Shaping the soil surface to a planned slope. Almost always done to move water away from the house rather than toward it.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Positive drainage: Ground that slopes away from the foundation so water runs off instead of pooling against the house. The single most important thing grading fixes.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Swale: A shallow, shaped channel that carries surface water away from where you don't want it. A drainage solution disguised as landscape.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
French drain: A gravel‑filled trench with a perforated pipe in it that intercepts water underground and redirects it somewhere safe.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Dry well: A buried gravel pit or chamber that collects water and lets it soak into the ground slowly.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Catch basin: A grated box set at a low point that captures surface water and sends it into a pipe.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Erosion: Soil being carried off by moving water — the usual reason a bare slope keeps washing into the lawn.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Microclimate: A pocket of your yard that behaves differently from the rest — a hot south‑facing wall, a soggy low spot, a windy corner. It changes what will grow there.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Hardiness zone: A USDA climate zone based on average winter lows, used to tell whether a plant will survive here. Most of SE Wisconsin is Zone 5b.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →
Site plan: A scaled drawing of the property showing what exists and what's proposed. It's what keeps grading, drainage, and planting from fighting each other.Related: Landscape Design & Installation →

Patios, Walkways & Hardscape 14 terms

Paver: A manufactured concrete or clay unit laid without mortar. Pavers work as a system — they lock against each other rather than being glued down.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Subgrade: The native soil underneath the excavation. Everything above it is only as stable as it is.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Aggregate base: The compacted crushed stone layer under a patio — the actual foundation. Industry guidance is roughly 4 inches for a patio and 6 for a driveway, more over poor soil.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Compaction: Mechanically densifying the base so it settles now, under a plate compactor, instead of later, under your patio.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Bedding sand: A thin (about 1 inch) layer of coarse sand the pavers are set into. It is a setting layer, not a base — it can't fix a bad base.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Screeding: Striking the bedding sand off to a uniform depth so the pavers sit flat and level.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Edge restraint: A barrier around the perimeter that stops the pavers from creeping outward. Without it, the field slowly spreads and the joints open.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Interlock: The load‑sharing behavior that makes a paver field act as one surface instead of thousands of loose pieces. Edge restraint and joint sand are what create it.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Polymeric sand: Joint sand with binders in it that hardens when wetted. It locks the joints, resists washout, and makes weeds far less likely.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Geotextile fabric: A separation fabric between the subgrade and the base so soft soil doesn't pump up into the clean stone and ruin it.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Permeable pavers: Pavers with open joints and an open‑graded base that let rainwater soak through instead of running off.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Flagstone: Flat, irregular natural stone — a more organic look than uniform pavers, and more labor to lay.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Efflorescence: A whitish, hazy salt bloom that can appear on new concrete pavers. It's normal, it's cosmetic, and it usually weathers away.Related: Patios & Walkways →
Frost heave: What happens when water trapped under a patio freezes and expands, lifting the surface. A properly drained base is the defense.Related: Patios & Walkways →

Retaining Walls 12 terms

Retaining wall: A structure that holds back soil. It's structural, not decorative — it resists real lateral pressure from the earth behind it.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Segmental retaining wall (SRW): A wall of dry‑stacked concrete units — no mortar — that relies on its own mass plus the mechanical interlock between blocks.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Gravity wall: A wall that resists the soil purely by its own weight, with no added reinforcement. Fine up to modest heights.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Batter: The slight backward lean built into the wall face. Typically about ½ to ¾ inch per course, and it's what helps the wall push back against the soil.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Setback: How far each course sits behind the one below it. Setback is what produces the batter.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Base course: The buried first row of block. It's leveled obsessively, because every course above inherits its errors.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Geogrid: Synthetic reinforcement laid horizontally into the backfill at intervals. It ties the soil mass to the wall, and it's what makes taller walls possible.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Drain tile: A perforated pipe behind the base of the wall that carries water out. The most commonly skipped critical component — and the usual reason walls fail.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Backfill: Clean, free‑draining gravel placed behind the wall so water moves down to the drain tile instead of building pressure.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Deadman: An anchor extending back into stable soil to hold a wall in place — common in timber walls and in repairs of leaning walls.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Boulder wall: A wall built from large natural stones. Reads as part of the landscape rather than as a manufactured product.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →
Terracing: Stepping a slope into two or more shorter walls with flat, usable space between them, instead of one tall wall.Related: Retaining Walls (Block & Boulder) →

Plants & Gardens 16 terms

Annual: A plant that completes its whole life in one season. Big color, but you replant every year.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Perennial: A plant that dies back and returns from its roots each year. The backbone of most beds here.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Deciduous: Loses its leaves in fall — most shade trees and many shrubs.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Evergreen: Holds its foliage year‑round. This is what keeps a bed from looking empty from November to April.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Native plant: A species that grew here naturally before European settlement. Adapted to our climate, and generally lower‑maintenance once established.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Cultivar: A "cultivated variety" — a plant selected or bred by people for a particular trait, like flower color or compact size.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Balled and burlapped (B&B): A tree grown in a field, then dug with its rootball intact and wrapped in burlap. How most larger trees are sold.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Container‑grown: Grown in a pot rather than dug from a field. Lighter, less transplant stress, and plantable across a longer window.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Root flare: The natural widening where the trunk meets the roots. It must sit at or above grade — burying the flare is one of the most common ways a tree is slowly killed.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Girdling root: A root that wraps around the trunk and eventually strangles the tree. Worth catching early.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Transplant shock: The stress a plant goes through after being moved, while it re‑establishes roots. Water is usually the cure.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Amendment: Material worked into soil to improve it — compost being the most common.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Loam: A balanced soil of sand, silt, and clay. The soil everyone wants and few people have.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Deadheading: Removing spent flowers so the plant puts energy into new blooms instead of seed.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Dormancy: The plant's winter shutdown. It looks dead; it isn't.Related: Planting & Gardens →
Pollinator planting: Plantings chosen to feed bees, butterflies, and other pollinators — usually heavy on natives.Related: Planting & Gardens →

Lawns & Turf 10 terms

Sod: Mature turf grown on a farm, cut into rolls, and laid down for an instant lawn. Costs more, finished the same day.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Seed: Establishing a lawn from grass seed. Cheaper, but it takes a season and a lot of watering.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Hydroseeding: Seed, mulch, fertilizer, and a tackifier sprayed on as a slurry. Good for large or sloped areas.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Germination: The seed sprouting. Most turf types take 10–14 days; Kentucky bluegrass can take up to about four weeks.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Kentucky bluegrass: The dominant cool‑season lawn grass in this region. Spreads by underground rhizomes, so it repairs itself — but it's slow to germinate.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Thatch: A layer of dead and living organic matter between the soil and the green blades. A little is fine; too much blocks water and air.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Core aeration: Pulling thousands of small soil plugs out of the lawn to relieve compaction and let air, water, and nutrients reach the roots.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Overseeding: Spreading new seed over an existing lawn to thicken it and fill bare patches.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Topdressing: A thin layer of compost or soil spread over the turf to improve the soil from the top down.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →
Compaction (soil): Soil pressed so tight that roots, water, and air can't move through it. The usual hidden reason a lawn keeps failing.Related: Lawn Installation (Sod / Seed) →

Irrigation 8 terms

Zone: A group of sprinkler heads controlled by one valve. Zones should be grouped by what they water — lawn and garden beds want very different amounts.Related: Irrigation →
Rotor head: A head that throws a rotating stream of water a long distance. Used for larger lawn areas.Related: Irrigation →
Spray head: A head that throws a fixed fan of water over a smaller area. Used for tight spaces and beds.Related: Irrigation →
Drip irrigation: Emitters that deliver water slowly right at the root zone. Very efficient, and the right choice for planting beds.Related: Irrigation →
Backflow preventer: A device that stops irrigation water from being siphoned back into your drinking water. Required by code, not optional.Related: Irrigation →
Blow‑out (winterization): Using compressed air to force water out of the irrigation lines before winter. Skip it and the lines freeze, expand, and split.Related: Irrigation →
Smart controller: A timer that adjusts to weather and rainfall, so the system doesn't run during a downpour.Related: Irrigation →
Precipitation rate: How fast a zone applies water, in inches per hour. Matching it to the soil is what stops runoff.Related: Irrigation →

Mulch, Stone & Materials 7 terms

Cubic yard: The unit bulk material is sold in — 27 cubic feet. One yard of mulch covers roughly 108 square feet at 3 inches deep.Related: Mulch & Decorative Stone →
Mulch: An organic layer spread over soil. It holds moisture, moderates soil temperature, suppresses weeds, and breaks down over time to feed the soil.Related: Mulch & Decorative Stone →
Decorative stone: Inorganic ground cover — river rock, granite, trap rock. Permanent and low‑maintenance, but it doesn't improve the soil and it holds heat.Related: Mulch & Decorative Stone →
River rock: Smooth, rounded stone. Common as a decorative ground cover and in dry creek beds.Related: Mulch & Decorative Stone →
Topsoil: The fertile upper layer of soil where most root activity happens. Often stripped during construction and needing to be replaced.Related: Mulch & Decorative Stone →
Edging: A defined border between two areas — usually lawn and bed — that keeps each from creeping into the other.Related: Mulch & Decorative Stone →
Bulk vs. bagged: Bulk is sold and delivered by the cubic yard and is far cheaper per unit. Bagged makes sense only for very small jobs.Related: Mulch & Decorative Stone →

Snow, Ice & Seasonal 9 terms

Per‑push: Billed each time the plow comes out. You pay only when it snows, but contracted clients get cleared first.Related: Snow Removal →
Seasonal contract: A flat fee covering the entire winter regardless of how many times it snows. Predictable, and it guarantees you a spot on the route.Related: Snow Removal →
Trigger depth: The snow accumulation that activates service — commonly 2 inches. Below the trigger, the plow doesn't roll unless you ask.Related: Snow Removal →
Anti‑icing (pre‑treating): Applying de‑icer *before* the storm so ice can't bond to the pavement in the first place. Cheaper and more effective than fixing it after.Related: Snow Removal →
De‑icing: Applying salt or other chlorides after the fact to break the bond between ice and pavement.Related: Snow Removal →
Windrow / push zone: The designated spot on the property where plowed snow gets piled. Agreeing on it up front avoids losing a parking row to a snow mountain.Related: Snow Removal →
Rock salt (sodium chloride): The most common de‑icer. Cheap and effective — but it loses most of its punch below about 15°F.Related: Snow Removal →
Spring cleanup: The seasonal reset — cutting back perennials, edging beds, clearing debris, and refreshing mulch.Related: Snow Removal →
Fall cleanup: Leaf removal and putting the property to bed. Wet leaves matted over turf all winter cause snow mold and dead patches.Related: Snow Removal →

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