Keeping your landscape fresh and livable means making some conscious updates in your next landscape renovation. Many design trends today are focused on making an outdoor living space as useful as possible while staying true to various design styles as well as ecological ethics. From updating the patio surface to more environmentally conscious choices, there are plenty of ways to create a more modern landscape. Here are some landscape design suggestions along those lines for homes in Port Washington and Oyster Bay, NY.
A Downsized Lawn
Even though the lawn remains one of the most cherished and important commodities in the American home, there are many instances in which it feels too big. For instance, this may be the case if you find that your lawn rarely gets used. While beautiful, a lawn tends not to be a useful space for homeowners without small kids, pets, or a love of lawn care. An emerging trend is to keep the lawn in the front yard but carve up some of the space in the backyard for different uses, such as an expanded patio, a secluded nook with a fire pit, or more ecologically-friendly and visually stunning plantings. The outcome can be a more usable space along with less ongoing maintenance and a smaller eco-footprint (fewer chemicals and lower water usage)—a win-win for many homeowners.
An Updated Patio
The patio should likely be the most important space in your entire backyard as it’s the hub of all activities and the focus of your gatherings. Whether big or small, it has a commanding presence in your landscape and therefore requires materials that make it a space worthy of attention.
You could upgrade your patio to patio pavers to create a more durable, practical, beautiful, and welcoming backdrop for all of your backyard activities. There are so many paver varieties to choose from that you will find options that fit with your design style preferences.
Modern pavers use impressive technologies, including the ability to create non-slip textures, which greatly reduces the risk of slipping accidents. Many pavers use permeability as a main feature. This technology allows water to disperse through the cracks between pavers instead of collecting on the surface and proving to be a hazard. Permeability also allows rainwater to cycle into the groundwater system rather than flooding onto the landscaping or rushing down storm drains. Best of all, permeability is a feature that will improve the life of the pavers themselves by avoiding damage from the freeze-thaw cycle.
LED Conversion and Updated Lighting
In order for your landscape to be the safe and welcoming place that it is, you’ll need an array of lights with different lighting strategies. Consider converting your landscape lighting to use light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which have become far more efficient and versatile than their older light bulb technologies. LEDs are considered inexpensive to operate, incredibly long-lasting, and small—making them potentially ideal for placing in hard-to-reach areas such as within the canopy of your trees, which means an incredible opportunity for creative outdoor lighting.
Along with this technology comes a landscape lighting trend that does away with runway-style lighting that only illuminates the perimeter of the outdoor living space and leaves the rest of the landscape pitch black. Today, a layered effect is on-trend. This technique places small, unobtrusive, low-wattage fixtures “randomly” throughout the landscaping to add dimension and do away with overly stark contrasts between illuminated and dark areas.
