“There is definitely a trend towards people staying at home more and vacationing in their backyard,” says Benjamin Stapper, a landscape designer and horticultural specialist with Mackinnon Reid & Associates. “Clients are looking at the outdoors as a complete entertaining and living space, to create a kitchen, living and dining room without walls or ceilings.”
Outdoor living is now reaching sophisticated levels of comfort and convenience with fabulously furnished patios, elaborate porches, gorgeous gazebos, stunning summer kitchens and outdoor bars in naturally landscaped settings with beautiful pools and hot tubs. These elements all come together on a lovely Manotick property, where Benjamin designed a detailed landscaping plan that was implemented by the handy homeowner who happens to be a Carleton University professor.
The labour of love was an interesting project for the professor, who admits that the physically hard work was very different from his day job, but great fun. Although it took several summers to complete, this allowed the plan to be modified as it evolved and gave him the flexibility to make changes without costly consequences.
After DX Pools constructed the gunite pool with a spill-over spa and hot tub, the professor worked on a long stone wall and terraced rockery backing onto a wooded area and he installed the square-cut flagstone patio and walkways. He also built the pool house, which was designed by Andre Godin who provided the building plans for the family home. Finished in the same exterior stone, it contains a full summer kitchen, separate changing room and pool storage area.
In the outdoor kitchen, a wraparound granite-topped bar overlooks the sunken cooking and prep area with flagstone flooring. Under a white wood-panelled ceiling and exposed hemlock posts, the galley kitchen houses a built-in gas barbeque and dual-burner cooktop (from Capital Appliance & BBQ), exhaust fan and hood, sink and fridge with bar and ice chest – all in stainless steel.
With a family of five all home for the summer, the professor says everyone takes their turn at outdoor cooking. But he gives full credit to his wife for her famous pulled pork recipe – slow-cooked in the charcoal oven of a Big Green Egg. Tall lamp heaters and lantern lights on the patio, as well as a unique stone-built Brazilian barbeque combine to make a warm and welcoming space where the busy family can relax and enjoy eating out almost every night without leaving home.
The homeowners praised the landscape designer for doing a great job of realising their vision, which was to provide a backyard oasis and enhance the property with low-maintenance features and plants that would survive their collective non-green thumbs. Benjamin confirms that low-maintenance design is often a priority, but warns that this should not be confused with no maintenance!
“Typically I ask clients how they want to use the space from a lifestyle perspective,” says the designer. “Do they want a place to retreat from the world or to open it up to family and friends?” He adds that too many details early in the process can distract from establishing a landscape design that will work for the client. “It’s more important initially to get a sense of their lifestyle regarding the size of household, ages of family members, their entertaining needs, if they have pets or a cottage, etc.”
As always, the budget can be the biggest challenge. Sometimes it doesn’t match the client’s wish list, but Benjamin explains that the goal is to establish the big picture with a customized masterplan that goes beyond the immediate budget. Then it can be broken down into phases that will happen over time.
“The ideas and design are the most valuable part of a landscape project,” he says. “Once we have created the plan, it’s the homeowner’s property and they can choose to have the work done professionally by us or do some – or all – of it themselves.”
Overall, the landscape designer is seeing a move away from traditional, English-garden style backyards to a modernist aesthetic with simpler yet strong and dynamic lines. Hardscaping is big with natural-looking flagstone and sandstone rather than interlock and concrete pavers. Structural elements like pergolas are popular too, not only to give definition to an area, but to provide shade and protection with either a framework covered by hanging vines or intricate beams and lattice work.
When it comes to outdoor living, the sky really is the limit with an amazing array of landscape designs, lifestyle features and patio furnishings to turn any backyard into a quiet retreat or a hub of entertainment. The choice is yours!
