exterior hardscape - going green

One way to soften the environmental (and financial) investment in exterior hardscape is recycling an existing material and reusing it on site.  

How is that possible you ask?  You only have an old cracked driveway or patio.  Well, how about if we break up and remove that cracked concrete...

and we grade the site and reset the broken "stones" often called urbanite (or recycled concrete) in an organic pattern...

We could make a walkway and fill the space between the urbanite with decomposed granite or groundcover.

we could make a little patio or transition zone...

or even create a landscape element such as a fire pit, fountain or bench by stacking the urbanite.

The sky is the limit with recycled concrete!  It is an amazing resource if you have it, and in LA you can often find it for free (you save a person the cost of hauling it to the dump).  It's a major win win and I think it can look as great as flagstone or other expensive materials.  One of the tricks is to use only the largest pieces and to make sure they are set well in a visually pleasing arrangement (not too much space between, not too little).  


Now go bust up that sidewalk and have fun!