Landscapers Near Me Suggest These Tips to Improve a Backyard in Mechanicsburg and Enola, PA Areas

If you are thinking about renovating your landscape, you may be wondering what is driving landscape design. Some trends are new, while others have shown a steady upward trend and their popularity continues to increase. Landscapers near me suggest these __ tips to improve a backyard in Mechanicsburg and Enola, PA.  

Related: Dress Up Your Pool and Spa With These 3 Design Trends in Camp Hill and Lemoyne, PA Areas

Reclaiming Your Weekends

There’s a big eco-conscious trend that favors larger and better-designed outdoor living spaces, and a smaller lawn. Most lawns are seriously underutilized. Unless a homeowner has dogs and/or kids, the lawn is there simply for aesthetic value. However, lawns are incredibly thirsty and labor-intensive compared to other types of landscaping. If you’re ready to take back your weekends and embrace the full potential of outdoor living, consider these tips:

1. Replace some of your lawn with a larger patio. A cookie-cutter patio design rarely works and yet that’s what most people have. A zoned approach lets everyone enjoy the great outdoors how they want: cooking and eating, relaxing, entertaining, playing, and yes, napping. It’s extremely difficult to accomplish all of these goals on a single patio. A larger patio with distinct zones or a series of interconnected mini-patios is an opportunity to create quiet and active areas. Bringing outdoor living spaces closer to the landscaping is also a more interesting approach than the classic “home > patio > lawn > plant beds and trees” progression.

2. Whenever you add plants, choose natives. Being perfectly suited to the environment means significantly less effort on your part. No landscape is entirely maintenance-free, but if you value your weekends (and want to save water and support local pollinator species), reducing your lawn and planting natives is a great option.

Indoor-Inspired Outdoor Spaces

Today it’s possible to enjoy a sophisticated indoor-like ambience on your patio: shelter, warmth, amenities, and creature comforts. Features like soothing water features, outdoor audio systems, fire pits or outdoor fireplaces, wood-fired pizza ovens, and full outdoor kitchens are becoming more commonplace.

The shelter is key to enjoying the outdoors more. Pergolas offer wonderful shade and delightfully breezy space. Pavilions (installed on a patio or deck) and gazebos (free-standing) take the same approach of open sides, but with a solid roof that offers shelter from rain and even snow.

 Adding an outdoor fireplace to a permanent shelter structure creates a cozy living room feel. This is actually one of the best ways to optimize outdoor living. You invested in the space, so why not use it throughout the year, instead of the only summer?

A Zen Space

One of our favorite trends is transforming underutilized side yards into private retreats. Everyone deserves to “get away from it all.” Privacy fencing; a pergola for shade; a soothing fountain; a paver surface; a set of string lights; and comfortable patio furniture are the basics. Teens in particular will gravitate toward these private retreats. 

Permeable Surfaces

The amount of water that runs off a solid surface (a patio, walkway, or driveway) is comparable to the amount of water that runs off the roof of your home. It’s a lot of water, and it always has to find a place to go: it will either collect in a low spot or run off, potentially causing flooding.

Permeable pavers help mitigate this. The slightly wider joints, special jointing sand, and permeable base allow surface water to seep into the ground naturally. You’ll enjoy a drier patio after rain, and less ice and snow build-up in winter.

Related: Create a Luxurious Backyard With an Inground Pool and Patio Pavers in Mechanicsburg, PA