Photo courtesy Southport Outdoor Living

After years of being an afterthought, outdoor furniture has become a priority for homeowners looking to create their own personal oasis at home. The ability to entertain in a stylish backyard is now as important as having a top-of-the-line kitchen or large ensuite bathroom. To keep up with this growing demand, the outdoor furniture industry has found new ways to use different materials to create an array of well-designed, durable and exciting furniture, just as attractive and stylish as their indoor counterparts.
Outdoor furniture designers have finally been able to make a name for themselves in the same way as indoor furniture designers. The days of simple plastic table and chair designs and colourful floral-patterned cushions are gone. Today, outdoor furniture options are seemingly endless, and with the re-emergence of various trends, there are now thousands of ways to dress up your space and to truly make it an ‘outdoor room.’

A myriad of materials
There are a wide variety of materials being used to manufacture outdoor furniture, allowing design and creativity to be even more prominent. While pieces are made using everything from tubular aluminum, wood and wrought iron to stainless steel and wood-plastic composite (WPC), the three most popular materials are cast aluminum, resin wicker and extruded aluminum.

This is 1 of 11 in Modern Furniture Brings the Indoors Outdoors

Photo courtesy Hydropool Industries

While there are certain basics by which to guide your hot tub search, there are also some unique add-ons to consider when comparing models. These are just a few of the more popular upgrades on the market today.

● Fragrance dispenser: This allows you to use specially designed spa fragrances in your hot tub, to add an element of aromatherapy to your soak. This can take your hot tub from a mere luxury to a multi-faceted wellness centre.

● Water features: These add-ons (e.g. waterfalls, streams, etc.) can add both esthetic and therapeutic benefits to your hot tub.

● Air therapy: These systems inject numerous tiny air bubbles into the water to provide a full-body massage. If you choose this type of feature, make sure it uses heated air; there is nothing worse than having cool air ruin your hot tub experience.

● Lights: Colour therapy can be a beneficial addition to the massage and wellness experience. All hot tubs have a standard number of lights; it is up to you whether you add more—perhaps to the cabinet or the top lip of the hot tub—to enhance the soaking experience.

Doug Gillespie is the director of marketing, territory development manager and corporate sales trainer for Hydropool Industries. For more information, visit www.hydropoolhottubs.com.

Photo courtesy Backyard Getaways

One of the most rewarding investments you can make in your home is to create a backyard getaway where you, your family and your friends can make memories that will last a lifetime. At the heart of every great backyard, you are sure to find a beautifully crafted swimming pool that can provide you and your family with years of enjoyment.

The ultimate backyard, however, requires careful planning and design—this will make all the difference in the end. Proper preparation will ensure every detail is precise, from the ideal size, shape and location of the pool, to other aspects of your outdoor space. The best way to ensure a smooth and thorough design process is to work with an experienced pool design/build professional who can offer you their expertise while balancing your wants and needs.

Unfortunately, most prospective pool owners know very little about the planning process and aren’t sure what steps they need to take, beyond contacting an experienced pool builder for help. If you fall into this category, you may find yourself overwhelmed. With this planning guide at hand, you can better know what to expect.

This is 1 of 10 in Planning Your Backyard

Photo courtesy Northland Recreation Supply

Playing it safe does not mean your children can’t enjoy backyard play equipment—it just means you need to take precautions to protect them. Here are some tips to help keep your kids safe:

• Anchor swing sets to avoid tipping; look for equipment that includes a set of detailed assembly instructions.
• Do not attach, or allow children to attach, ropes, jump ropes, clotheslines or pet leashes to play equipment. Children can be strangled by loose ends dangling from swings, slides or play decks. Loose strings on clothing (e.g. jackets or ponchos) can also cause accidental strangulation if caught on play equipment.
• Check for dangerous or protruding hardware, like open ‘S’ hooks or protruding bolt ends.
• Be vigilant about spaces that could trap your child, such as openings in guardrails or between ladder rungs.
• Make sure elevated decks have guardrails to help prevent falls.
• Select a swing set with soft material, such as a rubber belt seat; wood or metal seats can cause more serious injury on impact.
• Remove any tripping hazards, like exposed concrete footing, tree stumps and rocks from the play area.
• Check the play equipment surface regularly to make sure it is in good condition. Smooth out sharp points, edges or rough wood as soon as you spot them.
• Never use wood preservatives that contain creosote or other known chemical carcinogens on wooden play equipment.
• Most importantly, carefully supervise children on play equipment, even in your own backyard. Teach your kids some basic playground rules. For example, warn them not to climb on the very top of the play set or walk close to, in front of, behind or between moving items.

Have Fun!

With careful planning, backyard playgrounds can provide safe yet challenging activities for kids of all ages. Whatever your yard or budget size, take the time to search out the best quality play structure for your family and it will be enjoyed by your children (and maybe even grandchildren) for generations to come.

This is 6 of 6 in Adding a Backyard Playground

Photo courtesy of Chet Neufeld

With so many beautiful options, choosing native plants can be an overwhelming experience, especially for novice gardeners. To help narrow the field, here are a few of my personal favourites.

Purple coneflower (echinacea)

There are many echinacea species, like E. purpurea, E. pallida and E. angustifolia, plus many horticultural varieties that offer a rainbow of colours, from purple and white to orange, red or yellow. They are very sturdy and hardy plants that add beautiful late summer and fall colour. They grow very well from seed to a height of 500 to 800 mm (19 to 31 in.).

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Black-eyed Susan is one of those flowers that is a must for most sunny gardens. It produces a profusion of yellow flowers that add a lot of fall colour when little else is flowering. They are prolific seed producers and grow well from seed to a height of 400-700 mm (16 to 27.5 in.). There are also many horticultural varieties as well with different flower sizes, shapes, and colours.

Blazingstars (Liatris)

There are many Liatris species. Some are particularly attractive to monarch butterflies, such as New England or Eastern blazingstar (L. scariosa) and rough blazingstar (L. aspera). Other favourites include the dense (L. spicata), meadow (L. ligulistylis), and dotted (L. punctata) blazingstars. They produce clusters of stalks with flowers  covering much of the spike.

Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Although this species is not native to most of Canada, it has considerable potential for gardening. It is a mid-sized plant that produces umbels (clusters) of beautiful orange flowers. Butterfly milkweed is not invasive, like some other milkweeds, and is very attractive to monarch butterflies for nectar and as a food source for their caterpillars.

Marsh milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

Marsh milkweed is a larger flower (up to 1 m [3 ft] or higher) and prefers soils with a little more moisture, as the name implies. The flower is an umbel, like dill, has a deep rose colour and would be attractive to butterflies.

Photo courtesy of Clayton Ditzler

Beauty and visual interest need not be sacrificed to create a low-maintenance landscape. Sometimes a higher-maintenance item can be included; the key is achieving the right balance. Instead of a big bed of annuals, consider a grouping of containers positioned where you will see and appreciate them the most. In fact, instead of resource-heavy annuals, try filling the containers with succulent (water-retaining) plants, such as sedums or ornamental grasses.

Bigger-ticket focal points can also be suited to fit a low maintenance landscape. For example, a water feature need not take a lot of time to maintain. Consider a ‘pondless’ water feature, which utilizes a buried reservoir rather than a pond to recirculate water from a smaller, self-contained unit. This will provide you with the sound of water and attract some wildlife, without significant upkeep. Sculptures or garden art are also great low-maintenance ways to provide a focal point to the landscape.

Enjoy Your Space

Esthetics are important, but so is taking the time to appreciate your backyard. By following some of these guidelines, you can reduce the time you spend maintaining your oasis and spend more time enjoying it.

This is tip 10 of 10 in Low Maintenance Landscapes

Photo courtesy of Kerry Hecker

1. Choose healthy plants with greater growth and flowering potential. It is better to choose a smaller plant that has many basal stalks or branches and isn’t flowering, versus a larger plant that is already flowering but only has one stalk.
2. Before buying, arrange plants while at the nursery to see what looks best together or to help inspire your design ideas.
3. Before planting, always set out plants in their pots to finalize the design, arrangement, and planting distances.
4. Dig a hole that is at least two to four times larger than the size of the pot. If there is heavy clay in the deeper soil layers, remove and discard it and add a rich organic soil. You can use either an organic mix or rich black loam with amendments such as:
   • peatmoss (potting soil);
   • perlite (to prevent compaction);
   • vermiculite and/or water-hydrating crystals (to hold moisture); and/or
   • sand (to increase drainage).

Photo courtesy of Clayton Ditzler

Perhaps someday water will become too valuable to use on ornamental spaces. Until then, irrigation can be used to your advantage in a low-maintenance landscape. Investing in a professionally designed and installed automatic underground irrigation system will yield considerable savings, whether it’s the time you save dragging around hoses and sprinklers or reduced water consumption. By using zones, specialized heads or drip techniques, irrigation systems can be programmed to apply appropriate amounts of water exactly where and when it is needed. Automatic systems can also be run at the optimum time of day to maximize effectiveness and reduce wasted water, thus saving you money.

Properly irrigated turf is stronger and healthier, and therefore better able to sustain traffic and suppress weeds. Irrigation on ornamental plants (e.g. shrubs, perennials beds) helps establish these areas quicker, which also reduces weeding.

This is tip 9 of 10 in Low Maintenance Landscapes

Photo courtesy of Hydropool Industries

10. Keeping Your Hot Tub Critter Proof

Rodents would love to have a warm place like a hot tub to live during those cold winter months; they’d even have something to chew on! These days, most hot tubs are built with rodent-proof cabinets—however, mice can still fit through the cracks in a floor vent and wasps are drawn to cedar. Make sure the installation is fully sealed so no unwanted guests can get in.

Hot tub installations are part of some of the most beautiful backyard projects in the world—and yours can easily be among them. By planning your installation well, and following these guidelines, you too can enjoy the well being and stress relief only hot tubs can provide.

This is 6 of 6 in A Guide to Hot Tub Installation

Photo courtesy of Clayton Ditzler

Nature abhors a vacuum; in your landscape, that vacuum is bare soil. When a garden is young, before the plants have had a chance to fill in, you will inevitably have some weeding to do. However, to keep maintenance down, consider mulch as a long-term solution.

Mulch has many advantages, from looking good to conserving moisture, but from a maintenance perspective, its primary function is reducing weeding by covering bare soil. As mentioned previously (see Tip 4), mulch can also be used in dead spaces. Consider this trick: blend your planting beds into those dead spaces using the same mulch. If done properly, the dead areas look more natural.

When choosing mulch, look for options that are locally available in large quantities. Mulch tends to be bulky and/or heavy, so shipping it in from other areas means added cost. The components of local mulch will depend on where you live.

Inorganic materials, such as washed rock, must be used over a layer of landscape fabric. The fabric helps keep the rock clean and physically suppresses weeds while allowing air and moisture through. Organic mulch, such as wood chips, can be used without fabric, as it will break down over time and become incorporated into the soil.

This is tip 8 of 10 in Low Maintenance Landscapes