Alabama Outdoor Living Guide: How To Begin Your Backyard Improvement Project
Alabama Outdoor Living Guide, Part I
When you live in a Southern state such as Alabama, it’s practically essential to have a backyard space and patio area that are optimized for outdoor activities and comfortable day-to-day living. In this landscaping guide from our seasoned crew of contractors, we give you some professional tips and industry insight as to how you can easily transform your yard into an outdoor living space that’s worthy of neighborhood envy.
For more information about best practices for landscaping in Alabama, or to learn more about outdoor living, residential hardscaping, and our other contractor specialties, please contact a local lawn care expert at Twelve Oaks Landscape Co. today!
Getting Started With Outdoor Living
1. Define Your Outdoor Living Design
The first phase of your outdoor living enhancement efforts should focus on developing an idea of how you want to decorate the project area and design the landscape of your property. Start by assessing the area that you’ll be working with.
This helps you determine what your property can already accommodate, as well as what, if anything, needs to be changed about your current outdoor living situation. Whether you’re starting from scratch with a small section of the lawn or you already have a well-established patio and seating area in place, it’s possible to make any backyard better with just a little bit of landscaping know-how and creative inspiration.
Once you’re comfortable with the initial layout and structure of your backyard, it’s time to get creative and start brainstorming ideas for landscaping design, potential hardscape structures, and overall outdoor aesthetics. You don’t need to know exactly everything that will be included in your final outdoor living design, but if you have a general idea of what types of decor you tend to prefer — such as Southern Chic, California Casual, or a mix of metals, masonry, and rustic wood accents — then the pieces of the puzzle will come into the right place as you progress through your property enhancement project.
2. Find The Perfect Outdoor Furniture
Not every home has an area specifically designed for patio furniture and everyday living. However, even if your backyard is limited in space and sprawl of grass, there’s always a way to make room for the outdoor furniture you’re eager to feature.
When you begin searching for the perfect furniture, consider how your ultimate selection of cushions, lawn chairs, hammocks, and whatever else you want to add will play off your overall outdoor decor vision.
If you’re going for more of a modern and/or minimalist kind of curb appeal, perhaps you’ll focus on lots of black, white, and neutral colors for the largest pieces and items of your patio furniture.
In the same way, if you’re a fan of vivid colors, unique upholstery, or eclectic combinations of outdoor designs, then you might want to consider an area rug in a solid or subdued color to add a sense of cohesiveness to the overall collection of outdoor furnishings.
3. Build Out Your Backyard
Despite what the name might suggest, hardscaping doesn’t have to be difficult. With the right vision, plan, and professional support for your project, it’s easy to make virtually any hardscape design for your outdoor living area into a solid success.
If you’re not already familiar with what hardscaping is, it can be thought of simply as a counterpart to landscaping. The difference? Instead of dealing with plants and living components as a landscape contractor might, a hardscaping pro works with all the elements and structures of outdoor living that don’t require regular pruning or watering.
In other words, hardscaping is everything that landscaping is not — which means it encompasses outdoor furniture, patio structures, decks, water features, fire pits, and so much more!
If your backyard doesn’t already have in place your desired type of hardscape structures, you may want to consider working with a qualified contractor as you go about building out your personal portion of the Alabama outdoors. Begin by looking for a local landscaping company, and be sure they have a team of experienced contractors who specialize in hardscaping and outdoor residential construction. If you want to start your research on the right foot — and we don’t mean to toot our own horn — we think our extensive portfolio of hardscaping projects speaks for itself.
Looking To Learn More About Outdoor Living in Alabama
Read Our Next Landscaping Guide Now!
In this starter guide to outdoor living, we covered a fair amount of material that may benefit and boost your backyard design project. If you want to ensure that you continue to follow best practices for both landscaping and hardscaping, you can start the next installment of your outdoor living journey immediately — click here to read the next how-to guide in our Outdoor Living series!
If you’re already in the process of boosting your backyard, and you live in the northeast Alabama region, be sure to give Twelve Oaks Landscape Co. a call for a free quote on your outdoor living project. From Huntsville to Calhoun County, we offer top-rated services for landscape design, outdoor kitchens, seasonal lawn care, gardening, and more. Contact our team of contractors today!
