FEATURED PROJECT

Backyard Escape

Location: Alexandria, VA

Client’s Objectives for Landscape:

The client wanted to create a level lawn area from their unusable sloping backyard that would provide their growing family with a spacious area for their children to play.

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Main Features of the Landscape Project:  

The key features of this outdoor room are the welcoming entrance from the stoop, the wide staircase, the spacious patio area, complementary seat walls, garden beds for seasonal plantings, evergreen plantings for privacy and the 600 SQ FT sodded level play area. All the elements of the outdoor room flow seamlessly into one another. The family thoroughly enjoys spending time playing, relaxing and entertaining in their very usable flat backyard landscape.

Drag the circle with arrows to reveal this landscape transformation.

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Major Challenges:

Transform an unusable sloping backyard into a functional flat area with as much usable space as possible. To achieve this goal, soil was moved and relocated throughout the property. The area was graded, leveled, and designed to include a 600 SF sodded lawn and large patio.

Drag the circle with arrows to reveal this landscape transformation.

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Special or Unusual Features:

Upon exiting the back of the house into the outdoor room, an upgraded stoop with a welcoming three-foot-wide landing was designed and installed. The wide stairs cascade down onto the new spacious patio.

An adobe-colored segmental seat wall matching the color of the house opens to the lush level lawn. This attractive wall provides definition, complements the house, and retains the soil that was excavated from the sloping hill. A matching seat wall along the grassy play area provides additional seating.

The plantings add texture, color, and seasonal interest. The wall of evergreens along the perimeter of the fence provide privacy, help muffle sound, soften the wooden fence, and create definition.