A strong landscape design should be more than beautiful—it should also be highly practical for the lifestyle you want. Since your yard is truly an extension of your indoor living space, the features of the area should be as versatile as possible. By choosing multi-purpose landscape features, you can truly get the most out of your yard! These common pieces offer so much more than meets the eye.
Berry Shrubs
Shrubbery is excellent for filling in sparse areas of the landscape with lush foliage, while also adding privacy to the space. Fruit-bearing shrubs accomplish this and more thanks to their spring flowers and sweet summer harvest! Some berry shrubs, like blueberries, also show off gorgeous colours in the fall, giving these shrubs both multi-purpose and multi-season appeal.
Smart Lighting
Great lighting can completely transform the ambience of a landscape, especially after dark. Not only do lights make it easy to transition your patio from day to night, they’re also great for highlighting your yard’s best features once the sun has gone down. Smart lights have further modernized outdoor lighting, allowing you to set automatic timers, control brightness, and even modify the mood with different colours and colour temperatures.
Multi-purpose Sitting Walls
While retaining walls typically serve a decorative purpose by adding some vertical dimension to the landscape, sitting walls serve the same purpose while helping you become a better host! By choosing a wider wall and building them up to around 19 inches in height, guests will naturally use them as extra seating or to place their glasses and plates as they mingle.
Fire Features
Fire features can be used as family-friendly gathering places, informal grills, and a spot for guests to warm up and sip some after-dinner decaf on a cool night. Kids love to roast marshmallows while the grown-ups chat, and once the guests have gone home and the kiddos are in bed, you and your spouse can unwind and cuddle by the fire.
Water Features
Like fire features, water features wear many hats in the landscape! It goes without saying that a gorgeous pond and waterfall make any outdoor space more beautiful and welcoming—both to you and to the wildlife in your backyard. However, an often-overlooked benefit of water features is how effective they are at limiting noise on the property. The moving waters block the sounds of traffic and chattering neighbours, replacing it with the soothing music of a trickling stream.
Shade Trees
Mature trees tend to get taken for granted, but they add so much beauty and value to your property! Well-positioned shade trees provide cool shade in the summer and let the sun pass through in the winter, saving you money on cooling and heating costs all year long. Their majestic canopies are vital habitats for songbirds and provide an important source of food for a wide range of wildlife. They’re also excellent privacy boosters and noise blockers—a well-treed lot can make you forget you have neighbours at all!
While these are just a few of the common multifunctional landscape features available, many fixtures can be custom designed and built to suit your needs! To find out how your landscape can work harder for you, contact our team of experienced designers to book a consultation today.
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