MULTILEVEL LANDSCAPES

Take Advantage Of Terrain

by Blake Herzog

When you live in Northern Arizona with its spectacular mountain scenery, there’s a decent chance you’ll end up with a yard that slopes to at least some degree, making landscaping a bit more challenging.

Yet this is a great opportunity to use your creativity to craft a unique outdoor space existing in harmony with the environment that drew you here.

Adding stairs or meandering paths to the landscape makes your property more accessible for everyone who wants to use it, and building tiers into the landscape establishes flat surfaces for different kinds of vegetation.

Another principle of landscape architecture, layering, can heighten the effect and make your yard even more spectacular.

Leveling Up Your Yard

When your property includes a steep grade it can take some work to make it more habitable for humans, but it’s worth it.

A flight of steps built with natural materials like stone or wood helps everyone navigate and appreciate the beauty of your yard without impacting the natural slope of your land. Under the right circumstances, a weaving trail can be a great alternative that shows off every part of your yard.

Using native plants and trees will help ensure your flora is hardy and easy to maintain, with root systems that reach deep enough into the soil to retain the soil and shape of the hillside, while rock gardens are another organic way to manage hillside vegetation.

Tiering your yard with the use of retaining walls can give you a more structured landscape and a great way to establish areas for vegetable gardens or flower beds, entertaining, play areas and other dimensions. It also helps make a small yard seem larger by adding vertical space and creating an impressive scale.

Tiering also can be the basis of exciting features and amenities like lawns, waterfalls, pools or hot tubs, decks, patios and much more.

Layering Your Landscaping

This approach is gaining traction in the landscaping industry and can be especially effective on a slope. It plants the tallest and most visually impressive elements toward the back and side of the yard and de-escalates size and showiness as you move toward the front and center.

Deciding what should be the “front” end of your design can be more difficult if you’re looking at a downward slope behind your home, but in most cases layering gives a sloped yard texture, depth and structure.

Making two or three large ornamental or evergreen trees the anchor of your space and the main source of shade is usually the best start to making this sort of design work. Then it’s time to bring in some attractive shrubs, deciduous and/or evergreen, to step things down while spreading the heft of greenery and color throughout the space.

Finally, it’s time to look at ground cover in the form of plants, grasses and rocks to bring unity and completion.

One of the most frustrating aspects of golf is that improving your game requires getting dressed, loading your bag into the trunk, driving to the nearest practice facility or course and paying the fee before you can even get started.

Consider how much easier and more luxurious it would be to have a putting green at home.

All you’d need to do is step into your backyard and onto the turf to hone all those short game skills like chipping and putting that comprise up to 70% of your shots. Just think how your game would improve if you added small sand traps.

The average residential putting green covers about 500 square feet, but they easily are customized to your lifestyle so you can find them anywhere from 100 square feet to 2,000 square feet or more.

Your dedication to your golf game as well as how many other people you want to invite to use it, should be the defining factors.

There are many add-ons to create a more convenient and sumptuous experience like outdoor lighting, storage sheds, water features, eye-catching flags and adapters for playing bocce ball, croquet and other games.

Beyond the obvious upside to your golf game here are additional benefits to including this amenity in your backyard:

Aesthetics

Most backyard greens use artificial turf, which can hold its color and look fabulous for up to 15 years with little maintenance. Even in the winter you’ll be able to see and use this cheery reminder of sun-soaked days on the fairway.

Artificial turf also conserves water and the money you would otherwise spend on maintenance of natural grass greens. It can be a great solution for areas that don’t get enough sun to grow healthy grass or add more color to a xeriscape.

Entertainment And Socializing

The putting green can be a great focus for daily couple and family fun and a huge draw when you’re throwing an outdoor party for your friends and neighbors.

You can hold fundraisers, competitions, even tournaments, not to mention memorable watch parties for the Masters and other iconic televised events. Your invites will become some of the most coveted in your neighborhood and community!

Home Value

Backyard putting greens are getting increasingly popular with all of the benefits they bring to the table, so they can earn you some money when it’s time to sell your house.

It’s not always a surefire moneymaker, but if you’re in a golf-oriented community like Prescott, Sedona or Flagstaff, it can be a huge asset to consider.

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