How do you make your backyard your own, maximizing its space, function and beauty? How do you find inspiration and what’s trending in outdoor living?
We intuitively know that having a backyard where we can easily spend time outdoors is beneficial. Canada’s iconic Participaction initiative even touts seven science-backed reasons to get outside immediately.
So, if we know it’s important, how do we make the most of our outdoor spaces to entice us to do just that? A panel of industry experts put together by All Things Home tackled that very question earlier this year, looking at things like how to get maximum value, how to get started, trends happening right now and sharing before and after examples to inspire you.
Jump right to:
Who are the panel members?
Thomas Hoyle: Thomas is a landscape designer and the owner of Ottawa’s Life Long Landscaping. He is also president of the Ottawa chapter of Landscape Ontario, which represents the province’s horticultural industry.
Ed Hansen: Ed is the president of Landscape Ontario. He is also the founder of Ottawa-based Hansen Lawn and Gardens and has been involved in the industry for more than 30 years.
Benjamin Stapper: Ben is a multi-award-winning landscape designer at Ottawa’s Wild Ridge Landscapes. Ben has been involved in the landscape design industry for more than 25 years.
Moderator: Anita Murray is co-owner of All Things Home. Anita is a veteran journalist and the former Homes Editor at the Ottawa Citizen. She has covered the housing industry since 2011.
(This is an edited transcript of the panel discussion.)
What’s trending?
ED: Permeable applications, where you’re managing water on your property, is a huge thing — being as environmentally friendly as you possibly can but still having really good cosmetics.
BEN: We’re seeing a real partnership between health and wellness sectors and backyard living spaces. It’s no longer just a swimming pool and a hot tub; it’s a backyard spa, it’s a cold plunge, it’s a sauna. It’s all those things that allow us to escape or relax at home. And we’re finding new and creative ways to integrate them into a backyard living space.
THOMAS: In today’s busy lifestyle, we’ve seen a trend towards lower-maintenance products. So, instead of a deck that needs constant maintenance every year, it’s using composite materials. Then there’s artificial grass. Some backyards aren’t very large and homeowners don’t want to cut a three-foot strip of grass. Artificial grass adds “green” to the backyard without having to worry about maintaining it.
BEN: Then there’s the backyard fire space — outdoor living where we’ve got a roof, a heat source, a place to hang out with friends and family and really extend the season. This is a trend we’ve seen chugging along for quite a while. The nuances now are just more bells and whistles to make this space even more spectacular, essentially repeating what you know and love about an indoor family room but in your backyard.
ED: Exactly. Think of patio furniture as well. Fifteen years ago, it was horrible, but now you can have furniture that’s inside or outside and you wouldn’t know the difference. It’s the idea of making whatever is outside just like being inside.
Another one is going vertical. People really like things that are going up, especially if you have a small space. We see trends where people want to have a wall behind them so that they can stack gardens or herbs, things like that.
THOMAS: Another thing I’ve noticed is a lot of smart connectivity items. With all our lighting now, we have smart hubs with different zones that we can turn on. So, if you just want to entertain in the dining area then you can just turn those lights on. You don’t have to turn the entire backyard on.
BEN: Speaking of connectivity, there’s also our connectivity nowadays and how distracted many of us are by what’s on our phones, on the news, etc. How do we nurture the desire for our kids to get outside, even for us to be outside? How do we translate the idea of working at home to working outside?
It’s this idea of creating spaces in your property that nurture that desire, that give opportunity and a platform to allow you to do these things outside. And that ties directly again to the concept of health and wellness. There are so many studies that prove being outside, being within the context of nature is so good for the soul. How do we create spaces that pull you out of your house and put you into your backyard?
THOMAS: My mom’s a teacher and she wanted a way to keep the kids at home so she could watch them. So, my folks put in a pool 20 years ago. We’ve since renovated it and now my kids — their grandchildren — can really enjoy the space and that’s where we go instead of getting a cottage. That investment has really given back to them beyond the time when we kids were living there.
ATH: With things you see trending, do you find it can be a challenge to convince homeowners of the value of some of these choices?
BEN: Trending has two sides. As designers helping a client think about what they want out of their space, the interesting nuance is: What brings value for the long term and what is a trend that looks sexy today, but doesn’t necessarily bring the value for long-term enjoyment in your space? Talking to an expert can help you focus on what are going to be the most important elements to integrate into a backyard landscape.
What about planning?
ATH: Homeowners should have a “road map” for their project that gives them a plan to follow, partly because they may need to do things in phases and it’s important to do things in the right order, but also to create an overall holistic design that’s going to work well. Can you speak to that?
THOMAS: When it comes to planning, you might see something you want for your backyard, but it isn’t achievable right off the bat because it’s an expensive feature. It’s important to plan those things out so that maybe later down the road you can put in that fire feature or that wellness corner for yourself. Planning is one of the most important first steps towards your backyard or front yard renovation.
BEN: The most important place to start is to connect with a professional who can talk through the important questions that will really get to the foundational concepts about where to start. Some of that starts with what you want, some of that is tempered by what we can afford and how do we navigate what we’d like, what we need and bringing all these things together. But really the starting point is helping to pare down what is really the intent of this backyard space, getting to the appropriate questions to ask.
THOMAS: The importance of the road map is also discussing with clients their time horizon at the property. Are you planning on being there for five years or 20 years? That might influence your decision on what is going to be feasible for the project.
ED: And where you live matters. If you live in a neighbourhood of $300,000 homes and you want to put in a $400,000 backyard, you might want to think about it. If you’re going to be there for 25 years, it doesn’t matter. Enjoy yourself and go nuts.
Similarly, if you live in a neighbourhood of million-dollar homes and you’re going to put in a $25,000 backyard, it’s kind of like putting a spoonful of chlorine in Lake Ontario. It just doesn’t cut it. Don’t sell yourself short; it’s an investment in your yard and it’s an investment in yourself.
Getting the most value
ATH: How do you get maximum value out of your project? What’s important to keep in mind? How do you start?
BEN: Value looks different for everyone. There’s the budget: How much is this going to cost? That is part of the equation and part of the conversation. But another part is what are we going to get out of this? What is the return for us in terms of wellness, family time, etc. And then there’s the whole conversation around investment. What can we spend? What can we do with respect to landscape that will be returned to me when I need to sell?
Choosing where that falls is going to be a different conversation for everybody, but the important part, at the early phases of creating the road map, is understanding what is valuable to you specifically.
At its core, a big part of value is longevity, doing things well and efficiently. So, part of this process of creating a road map of doing anything in the backyard is to simplify, to do fewer things meaningfully.
ED: You have to be honest with yourself. It sounds ridiculous to say that you can’t be, but most people aren’t. They get held on a budget and can’t see past that because they see the number, they don’t see the value in it.
Yet, what is “successful” for someone else doesn’t have to be for you. You don’t have to have a pool or a hot tub or a cold plunge. If all you want is a shaded area in the back corner that’s paved over where you can read, that’s creating the effect of $100,000 of value for you for just $10,000. But it requires being honest with yourself; don’t sell yourself short.
The other thing we tend to do is limit our vision. Maybe you do want the pool but you can’t afford it. Well, go ahead and get the design done and then work your way to get there. And if you can’t get it this year, maybe you’ll get it next year. And that’s OK. Start somewhere.
THOMAS: Experience is another thing. Of course, there are younger companies that are starting out and I’m sure they’re great. I was there once. But for a larger project, you want someone with that experience to be able to evaluate your property and ensure that the foundation of the project is done properly so that you know that project is going to sustain its useful life of 20 to 30 years.
ATH: Let’s talk about the “foundation” a bit more. A client may have a wish list, but just as important as the bells and whistles of an outdoor project is its foundation, so to speak. Can you explain why that’s important?
ED: Part of that foundation is experience. You can have somebody who’s got 30 years of experience, but they’ve never put in a pool. Well, you might want to reach out to somebody who has done a pool before.
The foundation of anything starts with not just the aggregate material or concrete you’re putting in; it’s the person who’s in charge of the job site themselves who is going to make a difference.
BEN: To me, foundation ties into value immediately as well. When we’re talking the practical terms of what’s below ground, we never see it, and it seems easy to reduce or simplify there because we’re not feeling the fun or the perceived value. But if how we prepare a site, how we do the foundation is not adequate, then the value in terms of timeline, in terms of longevity, in how you’re going to appreciate any feature that’s designed is just not going to be there.
THOMAS: A lot of the costs in projects are the foundation. You might not necessarily see it with your own eyes, but it is probably one of the most important aspects that we must consider when giving you your needs and wants. But we have to consider that 70 per cent of the product is in the foundation and ensuring that everything is going to line up to give you the best value for your project.
ATH: You were talking, Ed, about how it’s important to be honest with yourself. But it’s also important to be honest with whoever you’re bringing in to do the work, right? It’s a natural tendency for the client to not want to reveal exactly how much their budget is, because they’re afraid the contractor will want to spend all of it.
ED: You’ve touched on the most important part. Knowing the budget means we can help get maximum value for you. It’s so important for everybody to be on the same page about what you want to do. Money is a tricky one though, and there are companies out there who would not be responsible with your budget. But this does not happen with high-end projects.
THOMAS: And I think money is an emotional topic. We all work hard for our dollars and we want to see the value out of what we spend. If you don’t share that information with your contractor from the start, it’s hard for us to provide the value for that hard-earned money.
ATH: Do you need to have a contingency budget for your outdoor spaces, just like you do for your interiors?
ED: Very much so. In the landscape world, probably the No. 1 issue is what’s underneath the ground, and these are often things that a simple soil test will not uncover. The industry standard for a contingency fund is 10 to 15 per cent.
ATH: Why is an outdoor project about more than just asking the price per square foot? What are the important questions to ask?
BEN: It’s risky to discuss price per square foot because if that’s the way you’re going in as a contractor, there’s so much unknown. I’d like to see the yard, how are we going to get into the backyard space? What materials will be used? How far is the property from our office? There are so many factors that will influence cost. You can’t simplify it to something as easy as square foot pricing.
THOMAS: A good example of the various factors involved is just in the stone. You can go for a $4 commercial product if you really want, but you can also go to the other end of the spectrum where it’s a $30 natural stone, and that really changes the price.
ATH: It’s a challenging environment right now. How can you still look to improve your property when there is so much uncertainty out there right now? What’s your advice to homeowners?
THOMAS: If times are uncertain and you’re not sure of the future, spending some time planning your project out and maybe only doing a couple phases will make you feel more comfortable spending an initial amount. And then maybe in five years when things are looking better you might want to spend that next phase. So, planning is a big thing in uncertain times.
BEN: Then there’s also understanding value, that is the different parts of a landscape. There are some that will be investment value and some that are personal value. Our experience could also help navigate that. Planning allows us to break a job into several different components in a very effective way to navigate these uncertainties for sure.
ED: We all worried during COVID that the world was over, we’re going to lose money, our jobs, all that. People started to spend time in their backyards because they stopped thinking about the big travel plans. If we really cut to the chase, a family going to Disney is $25,000 or $30,000. So, instead of doing that, why not put it in your front yard? There’s no reason why not. These are just different ways of thinking about how you spend your money.
Before & after inspirations
Wild Ridge Landscapes
BEN: This was a new house with a builder deck and a desire for a lot functions (cooking, eating, lounging) in a small space. And it just wasn’t working for this young family.
We significantly enlarged the deck for a gracious dining space, kept the cooking and pizza making close to the kitchen, then also pulled the entertaining space further into the yard by adding a patio and a fire pit.
We worked several different features into this yard and still gave this young family space for the kids to run and play.
Life Long Landscaping
THOMAS: This is a backyard that worked well when the owners’ four boys were younger. But now that the kids are grown up and there are grandchildren, we transformed the space so that they can entertain with the grandchildren.
There’s now a putting green on the side of the home that the kids love. An outdated spa was replaced and we added a fire pit.
Wild Ridge Landscapes
BEN: This was a unique infill property in Westboro. One of the significant factors here is that the primary sight line into the yard is from the second storey, which is the main floor. For me, an important consideration with respect to landscape design in general is how do we connect the inside to the outside? There are a lot of miserable days in Ottawa and we’re inside more than we’re outside, so how to enjoy our space, how does it bring value from the inside and the outside?
We developed the space this way keeping the existing landing and stairs but then really pushing a much more generous patio terrace on the lower level, integrating the full outdoor kitchen with the wood burning pizza oven, the big grill and that space to both lounge and hang out family-room style but also to host evening dinner parties.
In a small space like this there’s really no intent for lawn, so how do we create a woodland garden underneath this tree? How do we plant it full of plant material that will help to bring in the pollinators and creatures and really create the escape that feels like we’re not in the middle of an urban environment? This one was also key to design it so that it looked inviting from inside, too.
Night lighting is usually one of the last pieces and it’s one of the first things that we cut out of a budget when we’re trying to shave things down. But it also transforms an outdoor space, bringing ambiance and warmth that allows you to use that space comfortably into the evening.
Life Long Landscaping
THOMAS: This was an overgrown property on Parkdale. It was a challenging project because we had no parking, so we had to stage it in the driveway and bring it to the back as we constructed it. They had a pond that was not functional and their biggest priority was to have a space for their young children where they could send them out in the backyard and not worry about them wandering off or drowning in the pond.
We were able to transform the space and have a sitting area right outside their patio door, turf for the kids to play soccer and a repeating stone colour for an elegant look.
Wild Ridge Landscapes
BEN: This one is a functional landscape and illustrates an interesting thing when we’re talking about value and where do we want to spend our money. When something works, it’s harder to feel like we should change it.
This was a home purchased by a family and the style just didn’t suit their taste. The new exterior has much the same function, but now is opened up with clean lines. The concept here was just a more casual, welcome space, but it brings a more contemporary feel to a space that felt dated.
Life Long Landscaping
THOMAS: This is another one where we had to be careful bringing our equipment into the backyard because the client is a huge gardener and we had to watch out for all her plants. The pool needed a refresh, but you don’t always have to remove it. In this case, the pool was fine, it was just the concrete that was just crumbling.
We took it out, poured a new collar and installed new interlock around it. We just kept it to the same design but updated the look. The owner is still gardening and she loves it.
