We began planning our landscape design the minute the architectural plans were approved for our home. This time around we worked with a landscape designer, which I was thrilled about. You can find all the details about that process here.

Since Spring is here, and many of you will be digging into your gardens soon, I thought I would share our backyard renderings in hopes to inspire, or help you with your decision making.

Here is my list of backyard "must haves" for our new home.

  • Large covered back porch at ground level
  • Sport pool
  • Stone fountain pool feature
  • Hydrangeas along the backside of the pool
  • Privacy/ lush trees around the perimeter of the yard
  • Open green space for the kids to run and play
  • A bathroom in the cabana
  • Outdoor shower (this was more of a nice to have vs. a "must have") 


While we do have a well-sized yard, I was asking for quite a bit things given the space. My motto is, "when there's a will, there's a way" (my husband loves that LOL), and I'm happy to report back that we were able to accomplish all of the above.  

I'm most excited about this back porch! One of my number 1 "must haves" for this home was to have the porch at ground level. This required us to dig a bit deeper when building - this isn't something that's necessary on every lot, it all depends on the grade. I also wanted the porch to have a seating and an eating area, all in one, which is wonderful for entertaining. We decided to include built-in screens as well, which will allow us to use to our porch more throughout every season - I'll chat more about this another time, because I could go on and on about these screens!

Ideally I would've loved a bit more space between the porch and the pool area, but we had to adhere to municipal by-laws when it came to pool placement. In our case, we had to have 6 feet between each edge of the pool and the surrounding fence.

As you know, my obsession with hydrangeas runs deep, and I love that when I look out our back windows, I will see them lining the back fence. While in our last home I LOVED our Annabelle hydrangeas, this time around I opted for limelight hydrangeas. I like that the limelight hydrangeas don't fall over as much as Annabelle's do. Since they will be placed by the pool, they seemed like a better option.

Along our back fence (behind the hydrangeas) we chose Thuja Green Giants. We planted these in our previous home and we're so happy with them - they grow 3 ft per year, so we can get the privacy we desire in a short period of time.

And lastly, our cabana. We chose to go with a smaller pool house this time around. It will house a bathroom, which I regretted not doing in our last home, as well as an outdoor shower. The inside will be used primarily as a change room and for storage. The reason I decided against a seating area in the cabana, similar to our last home, is because of our large porch. I think with the pools proximity to the porch, it wasn't necessary. 

I have yet to select pavers and stone, but I will share that as soon as I do. I hope this post helps inspire your outdoor projects this season, and I will be back in a few months to share the final reveal!

As always, if you have any questions, drop them below.

Xo

Caroline