3 Freshened Up & Flourishing Yards

You don’t always need to tackle a massive renovation to get a yard that suits your needs and pleases the eye. Sometimes making over a few key features will do the trick. See how creative design moves involving plantings, pavers and patios took these yards from tired to revived without starting from scratch.
Living Gardens Landscape Design
“After” photos by Sacha McCrae

1. Flat-Out Fetching

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with two young children
Location: Orange County, California
Front yard size: 3,000 square feet (279 square meters)
Landscape designer: Sacha McCrae of Living Gardens Landscape Design

Before: Stodgy brick and scraggly plantings made for an uninspired entry to this Southern California home on a corner lot. The homeowners wanted a more inviting space that would nurture neighborly interaction, with an area where their two children could play. They found Living Gardens Landscape Design and loved the company’s work. Principal designer Sacha McCrae came on board for the makeover.

After: McCrae swapped out the clunky brick for serene concrete slabs, tucking smooth rupturewort (Herniaria glabra, USDA zones 6 to 10; find your zone) between them for visual appeal and drainage. Along the sides, plants including fescue (Festuca sp.), lilyturf (Liriope sp.) and various succulents stand at attention to welcome guests.

The revitalization plan included painting the front of the house a brighter, warmer hue and changing the door color from notice-me red to a graciously unobtrusive gray, letting the plants have their moment. And speaking of plants, how adorable is that row of succulents snuggling up to the new entry deck? Tall fluted planters with trailing greenery balance out that row and all the other lower, linear plantings.

Before: A solo mature elm tree offered shade but looked a bit lonely in the flat expanse of front lawn.
After: The elm now has a plethora of plant friends, while the other end of the yard has a new gravel patio for neighborly gatherings in the fresh air. Guests can arrive here via a path of staggered wood planks from the front entry or a path of offset concrete pavers from the driveway.

Behind where this photo was taken from, a hedge of tall fern pine (Podocarpus gracilior, zones 9 to 11) provides some screening from the street and will fill in to form a green wall over time.

2. Getting in Lines

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple, their two children and their dog
Location: Fox Point, Wisconsin
Size: About half an acre
Landscape designers: James Drzewiecki and Hannah Paulson of Ginkgo Leaf Studio

Before: Even minor landscape and hardscape changes can give an older home thoroughly modern curb appeal, as this Wisconsin project shows. The house, built in 1954, had quintessentially midcentury modern architecture: a low and wide structure, strong lines, minimal decoration and neutral colors. But the front yard had cracked concrete and plantings that looked poorly thought out rather than intentionally minimalist. The homeowners brought in the team at Ginkgo Leaf Studio to enhance not just the look but the connection to the home.

After: Smooth and light concrete pavers, with bluestone inlays that match the coping on the brick planter by the front door, pick up on the angles of the home’s roofline. A strip of slate chips extends from both the planter and the chimney behind it — a geometric element that feels thoroughly modern and is beautifully in line with the 1950s architecture.

As for the in-ground plantings, the team reduced the size of the bed by the garage and added another small one diagonally across from it, again playing on angles. Short, upright plants — ‘Overdam’ feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Overdam’, zones 4 to 8 — are set at perfect intervals in the gravel for an unexpected and eye-catching touch. And note how the home’s new, darker accent color (Sherwin-Williams’ Ironclad) creates a stronger yet less distracting backdrop than the original redwood hue.

A slate bed in the left side yard not only matches the one in front but reflects the window design, joining home and yard in one casual but eminently clever fell swoop. The team made over this side yard and the backyard as part of the project, giving the family plenty of polished outdoor areas for relaxing, entertaining and even growing vegetables.
3. Grassy and Classy

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A young couple and their baby
Location: Toronto
Size: 3,600 square feet (334 square meters)
Landscape designer and installer: Infinite Possibilities Landscape & Design

Before: Patchy lawn was all that greeted this Toronto couple in their backyard on a corner lot — not ideal for entertaining friends or playing with their little one. As part of a phased plan that included reworking the front and side yards, landscape designer Alex Zalewski of Infinite Possibilities Landscape & Design made over this backyard with a patio, a pergola, healthy grass, and border blossoms and trees.

After: While this project technically was more than a minor refresh, the yard is brimming with design ideas that can be borrowed individually to freshen up an outdoor space. Here, for instance, simple flagstones below a dining set create a patio for eating and entertaining right off the kitchen. And a bed of Incrediball smooth hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens, zones 3 to 8) creates a lovely view and makes the generously sized yard feel more intimate.
Before: At the opposite end of the yard, a few play structures sat in an otherwise bare and drab expanse.
After: More flagstones and a cedar pergola form a lounge area in the far corner of the yard. Zalewski ran electrical wires here, allowing for a chandelier that makes the lounge feel like an outdoor room; they also support speakers and a Wi-Fi repeater. Flagstone stepping pavers form a charming path between the pergola and the dining patio.

A new cedar fence gives the backyard a more intentional, defined feel. Columnar aspen (Populus sp.) trees toward the back help screen the yard from neighbors and add height that draws the eye up. And on the fence facing the hydrangeas, columnar maples (Acer sp.) do the same.

You don’t always need to tackle a massive renovation to get a yard that suits your needs and pleases the eye. Sometimes making over a few key features will do the trick. See how creative design moves involving plantings, pavers and patios took these yards from tired to revived without starting from scratch. (cited)