Let’s face it, most of us don’t really hang out in our front yard, barbequing with the family, swimming in the pool, relaxing by the firepit with friends...we just tend to get the mail, walk to and from the car, and carry the groceries in. That makes designing your back-yard landscape very different from your front yard, as the back yard should be a relaxation recreation destination, not just a pathway to the garbage cans.
When designing your backyard landscape, we consider what your family likes to do.
- Would you like a bocce court, a volleyball sand pit, or a patch of grass to play soccer and chase the dog?
- Do you like to entertain in the evenings around a warming outdoor fire, grill a meal on an outdoor kitchen, or listen to soft music and the sound of falling water under the stars?
- Would you like your master bedroom to open up to a softly lit, lushly planted landscape, with seat rocks placed around a cozy private Jacuzzi spa for two?
- Are you into midnight dance raves with G-Sync led color strobe lights, hidden rock speakers pumping 200W trance tunes from Pandora, and the most awesome kegerator-in-a-palm-tree you’ve ever seen? (Even I was impressed with ice cold beer on tap from a living palm tree….and I don’t like beer).
In our 45+ years of landscaping back yards, Jerry Allison Landscaping has considered, seen, designed, and built pretty much anything your family might wish.
Once you have chosen an activity, we help you create a backyard destination that will make you want to spend time outdoors, on vacation in your own home.
Our backyard landscape design process considers house window locations and door access, foot traffic patterns, utilities locations for power, internet, lighting, gas, sewage and water, the type of flooring you have inside your home, the type of surface you wish to walk on outdoors, elevation and drainage mitigation such as walls and steps, permits and special requirements, etc etc etc. When working within your budget, hardscaping will be the largest expenditure, so we carefully consider materials choices, finishes, and construction techniques, to keep you within budget and on track, and make sure your landscape investment is nicely reflected in your increased home value. This is before we get to the pretty plants!
And yes, we do plant plants. Most of the time with the green side sticking out of the ground. Like choosing an activity, your desire for certain planting traits plays a crucial part in our plant palette design selection.
- Do you wish only drought tolerant, low maintenance, California natives?
- Would you like to spice it up a bit by drawing on drought tolerant plants from around the world that thrive in our local Mediterranean climate? (Have you ever been to the Mediterranean? It’s colder than people think).
- Are you looking for something more tropical in appearance, yet won’t freeze in the winter?
Our back yard planting design will take into account color, allergies, blooming frequencies, foliage types, climate zones, watering needs, soil type, and of course budget, ensuring that crucial balance of your desired finished softscape appearance to your willingness of cost to maintain.
Relaxation, recreation, stay-cation destination. Your backyard re-imagined.
The backyard design process allows you to dream, explore, consider and reject possibilities, all before the first shovel hits the dirt. Now’s the time to make mistakes, before we get messy, as together we narrow in on priorities, budgets, construction constraints, timelines, and ultimate goals.
Call or e-mail us today, and we will set you on the path to your own backyard relaxation recreation destination.
