Create A Home Away From Home

Ways To Make Your Yard a Place to Enjoy

The word “staycation” crept into our vocabulary over the past couple of years when people opted to stay home rather than travel for vacation. Now the word is associated with making your home a destination of comfort, a place you’ll want to spend your free time with luxuries that make you feel like you’re at your home away from home. An easy way to expand your living space and create an outdoor oasis is to renew and regenerate or expand your landscaping. We have assembled a number of possibilities that can make your yard a place for relaxing and vacationing at a variety of budgets. Whether these thoughts are incorporated as a single project or combined to create a totally new look, our ideas will make your yard feel more inviting.

An easy way to create a new look for your yard is with a new patio that’s designed to fit your lifestyle. Patios can make a dramatic change to the appearance and usefulness of your yard. They can range from simple concrete to many types and styles of brick pavers, and finally natural stone. There are many choices of material that will match your home, needs and budget. Adding a new set of outdoor patio furniture will allow you to enjoy a vacation without ever leaving home. Patio furniture has progressed in recent years from the simple lawn furniture to more elegant and comfortable pieces that make your own back yard a paradise. Choosing the right patio furniture will give your patio a homey feeling and can allow for plenty of seating for family and friends.

A complement to any patio is enhancing the landscaping around your property.  Adding the beauty of new trees, shrubs and perennials will make your yard a place to enjoy in every season. Selecting and placing the perfect plants may take some work, but it is the most budget-pleasing way to make a large impact to your yard while creating an inviting feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. A well-landscaped yard can produce privacy, aesthetic beauty and year-round color and interest.

Enhancing that outdoor living space with a fire pit, fireplace or even an outdoor kitchen would further add to the usefulness, enjoyment and attraction to your outdoor living space. A fire pit can make your setting a warm, cozy location to enjoy the evening without the chill of the night. It can be built into a new or existing brick patio or be freestanding. The varied selections of fire pits make them the perfect addition to any backyard.  

 More formal than a fire pit, fireplaces create a beautiful focal point. Like fire pits, fireplaces create an immediate gathering place for family and friends. Fireplaces and pits can make any outdoor living space more inviting by adding light, sound, smell and heat, and will extend the use of your backyard well into the spring and fall seasons. 

An outdoor kitchen is another possibility for expanding your outdoor living area.  Like fireplaces and fire pits, outdoor kitchens come in many styles and designs.  A simple grill surround distinguishes the kitchen area and allows for additional shelf space while barbequing, or perhaps the master of the house may want to create a cooking environment with all the amenities of the companion indoor kitchen, including a built-in grill, refrigerator, sink and other storage areas. The possibilities are truly endless and should be planned for with your lifestyle in mind. 

Low-voltage landscape lighting is another way to add four seasons of beauty to your yard. Low-voltage lighting is safe, inexpensive to operate and will accent your night time hours of entertaining and relaxation. Well-placed lighting will bring out the beauty and textures of your landscaping and draw attention to focal points of interest, and create an individual mood that fits your style for evening entertaining. Outdoor lighting also makes spaces like a patio or outdoor kitchen more usable at night by adding enough light in which to dine and socialize. Safety and security issues can also be addressed with lighting. A function of nighttime lighting is to illuminate potentially hazardous areas such as steps and abrupt changes in path directions or elevation. Even though you know your property well, your guest may not. Lighting also provides an element of security; it is a proven fact that a well-lit home will deter home intrusion. 

Other ways to enhance your yard are with water features. Popular water features include ponds, waterfalls, fountains, and bubbling rocks. Water features can be made to be a focal point or just an accent to any yard. Hobbyists can enjoy a year-round fish pond with waterfalls, accented with rock gardens and lighting. Water features add beauty and soothing sounds that are sure to create a relaxing calm to your yard. Simpler features such as a pondless waterfall or bubbling rock are a low maintenance way to add water, sound and points of interest to your yard.

Finally, pergolas and arbors are a wonderful way to enhance an area of your yard and can provide beauty, shade and a centerpiece to a backyard design. Many arbors are used as an entry to an outdoor room, a transition from one area to another or if you have a large yard with lots of trees and paths, an arbor would make a great entrance. An arbor can also be used as a destination point, built with a sitting area or a swing.  A pergola is a larger version of an arbor, defining a larger area of the yard.  It is a beautiful way to define an outdoor space and adds shade to a patio or sitting area. A pergola can be added to a large deck or patio, next to a swimming pool or even over a hot tub.

There are many ways to enjoy your home’s outdoor living space. Remember to consider your needs, desires and lifestyle when planning any changes. Take into account how the areas will be used both now and in the future, and develop a vision that you can implement and enjoy for many years to come.

A Garden to Inspire You: English Garden Rooms

The garden, newly installed in November 2009.

The garden the following summer.

The English Walled Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden features six different garden “rooms”, paying homage to the contributions of English gardens over the centuries. English gardens mix annuals with perennials and appeal to the senses, and the sound of water plays an important role. This concept of garden rooms inspired our clients, who came to us to create a similar outdoor setting to enjoy at the home in which they have lived many years.

The current backyard consisted of a three-foot high, raised timber retaining wall along one side facing the street, planted with a tall, unsightly hedge. The yard was mostly an expanse of lawn, with some shrubs and perennials. Our clients no longer wanted the old deck against the house, but wanted to keep a large shed, and needed an inconspicuous dog run for the four-legged member of their family. They also wanted a new picket fence along the side facing the street, and a tall white privacy fence for the remaining two sides of the backyard.

Nature’s Perspective removed the timber wall and the old deck, and moved the shed to a corner of the property by the gate leading to the alley. The fenced dog run was placed in the side, back corner of the house, between their house and the neighbor’s fence, away from view. We designed three different “rooms” in the garden using natural clay pavers and natural bluestone, connecting them with a clay paver walk. The Pergola Room will house a lounging area and have an outdoor chandelier. The Dining Room seats a table for six, and also has a seat wall for additional seating. The Multi-Use Room is off to the side of the Dining Room, accommodating the grill and providing room for larger gatherings.

The Pergola Room is surrounded with boxwoods, and wisteria and clematis vines will climb up and bloom over the pergola. The Dining Room is screened from the street with tall yews,  and hydrangeas will bloom here on summer dining occasions. Elsewhere, weeping crabapples, river birches, a tree lilac, shrub roses, and lilacs were installed, bringing texture and seasonal interest. Finally, a palette of 150 perennials and over 300 spring-flowering bulbs will emerge each year, eventually covering the space with delightful blooms from spring to frost.

A three-foot basalt column water feature adds the lovely sound of water. Colorful perennials planted outside the new white fence serve to delight passersby, heightening the charm of this pleasure-filled English garden.

Click on the layout above to enlarge.

Autumn is Great for Landscaping

Along with the milder temperatures and beauty of fall comes an excellent opportunity for landscaping for your yard. The cooler weather is a signal for plants to stop growing new shoots and leaves above ground, but not below. Trees and shubs continue to extend their root systems, making fall an ideal time to plant. The cool weather reduces the risk of ‘transplant shock’, or dieback, giving newly installed plants the time to acclimate themselves to their new home and set out new feeder roots before winter arrives. As the soil temperature cools and seasonal rain adds moisture, plants continue to establish themselves. This means that new plantings are less reliant on you (or your irrigation system) for their watering needs when next summer rolls around.

Trees, shrubs, and perennials planted in fall have plenty of time to develop before the wintry weather sets in. When the long, cold winter ends, you will have a new look in your garden and your plants will be ready to embark on a new season of growth.

The fall season is also great for landscaping with spring flowering plants. Because they set their buds the season prior to the flower, fall-planted trees and shrubs will display their glory in the spring season in your garden. A few of our spring-flowering favorites are Crabapples, Redbuds, Serviceberry, Azalea and Viburnum. Or, add to your garden’s fall display by choosing Maples, Cherries, Burning Bush or Sweetspire.

Autumn is also a terrific time to install the new patio or walkway you’ve been thinking about. With the addition of a new patio or sitting area, you can expand your outdoor living space and enjoy the wonderful fall season the Midwest has to offer, as well as having the use of your new space when spring arrives.

Living Outside the Box: Outdoor Living Rooms

Patio Possibilities

Turning your backyard into an outdoor living room is a growing trend. It offers an extension of your indoor living space and additional areas for entertaining and relaxation. There are countless ways you can liven up your yard to create a perfect outdoor living area for you and your family to enjoy. Thinking of the backyard as an outdoor room allows you to design and decorate a whole new area of your home.

A small backyard can be an inviting, intimate retreat.

Before you can effectively plan your patio, you should think about all of the possibilities to achieve the outdoor environment of your dreams. These spaces can range from understated to imaginative, and with careful planning, the simple backyard patio can become a deserved retreat with beautiful plantings, bird and butterfly sanctuaries, water features and nooks with fireplaces or fire pits, kitchen and dining areas with seating for guests, or a luxurious spa complete with a hot tub and pergola.

Today’s patios can be more than just backyard grilling stations. They can become a part of our lifestyle– extending our family rooms into the outdoors to take advantage of nature, sun and fresh air. They are transitional spaces that blend the best of indoor and outdoor life. More than ever, patios are where we entertain guests, spend time with families, or just get away from it all.

Planning Your Patio

The size and style of your patio depends on how you plan to use it. It should be a comfortable, well-planned solution to your family’s needs. If you entertain often, you’ll want an area large enough for guests to comfortably converse, mingle and dine. If the patio is used for occasional family barbecues or for relaxing and reading, it can be fairly small. A well-designed patio features different areas that fulfill a variety of expectations. There can be cooking centers, meditative retreats, and outdoor entertaining areas. Often patios are combined with additional elements such as complimenting plantings, water features and low-voltage lighting. Adding one or more of these elements will add another dimension of pleasure to your yard. Listing your primary goals is the first step toward effective planning.

A large backyard can be multi-functional.

Once you have created your ‘wish list,’ you can work to create a truly unique and enjoyable outdoor living space. Not only can you take advantage of usable square footage to add to your home environment, but you can also enjoy nature at her very best throughout the season.

Nature’s Perspective Landscaping, Inc. is celebrating its 30^th year of design and installing beautiful and sustainable landscapes in Chicago and Chicago’s North Shore. For more information, please call us at 847-475-7917 or visit us at naturesperspective.com.

A VAST Difference

One of the newest and “greenest” pavers we’ve seen is the VAST paver system from VAST Industries in Minneapolis.

The pavers are made from 95% recycled materials like car tires and milk jugs. They are durable, maintenance free and completely fade resistant. Equally impressive is their environmental appeal. A 500 square foot patio and walk will save 250 scrap tires and 7,500 gallon jugs from ending up in landfills. VAST pavers are manufactured with zero toxic or harmful emissions and zero waste.

They are backed with a 10 year limited warranty and a lifetime warranty against cracking. They’re strong enough to stand up to car traffic and yet light enough for use on decks. They are also permeable to reduce the runoff of storm water.

It is exciting times we live in when a new product has this much to offer. Visit their website, www.vastpavers.com to see the wide variety of colors available. The website also offers a visualizing tool to help you see paving color combinations. Our newly renovated paving showroom also features these pavers if you would like to see them.