Backyard Landscaping Revealed

We have undergone a massive backyard landscaping project–going from a dirt hill to a beautiful flagstone patio.  We began looking for a way to improve our backyard and make it a lot more like home. A friend of ours told us that about a company that would help us get our vision off the ground. Suffice it to say to see our vision come to life has been very exciting! Latham Landscape was wonderful to work with and was able to see the big picture, when all it was was just a pile of dirt and low shrubs. They worked with our designs and made it happen! Our house was built on a hill, so the “no” backyard was the problem child to the property and was on our major “to-do” list. Although we had many challenges to overcome, we were able to see that there was potential and could be a great investment. Our property backs up to a historical river and walking trails so we love how private and secluded it feels, especially now that we can go outside and enjoy it! I kind of wanted to get some decking to give it more of a balcony look, but perhaps we’ll try that idea for elsewhere in the house (perhaps a balcony outside our bedroom?).

Resources are listed below.

Here are some of BEFORE pictures:

As you tell from the BEFORE pictures, we had quite the height and hill drop! Not really a place to hang out and not to mention all the bugs, critters and snakes back there! So our goal was to create a way to get from the driveway to the backyard, and to fix the erosion problems we started to have. We knew we wanted a patio to hang out, a stone fire pit and a little grass section where the kids could run and play. We have a small natural spring head that begins in our backyard, so we decided to play it up and make it into a pretty stream.

As you can see we had to build a few big retaining walls because of the grade. We planted tea oils behind the 7′ retaining walls so in a few years it will be covered in white flower bushes. We have some tall trees right behind our house, which creates a lot of shade so we planted hostas, rhododendrons, hydrangea, tea oils, mondo grass. For the grass we used Bermuda sod. My friend told me that they took inspiration from our garden and are simply in love with it.

We wanted to match the style of our southern home to the patio, so using the same flagstone from our front porch was very important.

The patio receives quite a bit of sun so we planted roses, peonies, gardenias, a miniature magnolia tree, daylilies.

Potted lavender, hydrangea and hyacinth plants line the patio. We also placed lanterns for lighting and citronella candles to ward off mosquitos. Our landscaper did low-voltage lighting all around the backyard, spotlighting trees and on the stone steps so we can enjoy the patio at night. I highly recommend lighting when doing a backyard renovation. Since the patio is right below a hill, our landscaper also made sure proper drainage was installed so there are no puddles.

All design plans by me and my husband

Landscape execution: Latham Landscape (GA)

Flagstone, steps, rocks and most rock materials available at Home Depot

Many of the plants used available at Home Depot

Low-voltage lights: Home Depot

Ground-covering: Home Depot

Patio Furniture List:

Lounge Furniture: Solano Sectional World Market (on sale!)

Green Pillows and Flower Pillows: World Market

Black and White Striped Sunbrella Pillows and Cushions: Ballard Designs

White Sunbrella Umbrella: Ballard Designs

Patio Table: Target (similar)

Patio Chairs: Target (similar)

Lanterns, white candle holders: Target

Outfit:

Black and White Knit Dress: Anthropologie (similar)

Sandals: Cecelia New York

Bar Necklace: Darleen Meier Jewelry

Bracelets: Darleen Meier Jewelry

Turquoise Earrings: Darleen Meier Jewelry

If you have any questions, let me know!