RESORT-STYLE LIVING IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD

Outdoor kitchens offer convenience when entertaining and are a way to simplify everyday living. (Photo courtesy of Don King Landscaping).

By Emily Kemme

Beautifying your backyard can expand living spaces into Colorado’s great outdoors and create a private get-away, just steps from home. With well-planned designs and the involvement of experts, turning your backyard into a resortworthy oasis is a project that adds value to your home while offering a space to play and regenerate.

Modern day landscaping projects are most successful when they balance components, incorporating not only plants, but hardscapes, water features, lighting and enough electrical outlets to provide juice to whatever high tech cooking and entertainment gadgetry you can dream up.

Don King has been in the Colorado landscaping business for 46 years. When pulling a landscape design project together, King tries to impart a natural, organic Colorado look as the end result. “We try to make it look like a glacier left the plantscape there, including artistic placement of focal boulders.”

Before digging into a project, Don King Landscaping uses CAD designed layouts to conceptualize ideas for their customers. Taking client lifestyle preferences into account helps guide the planning stage. King believes the plant palate is what’s most important. “The design takes into account bloom factors of all the different plants, moisture levels, type of irrigation and best growing location. Through a modern site survey, we incorporate the hardscape, patios outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, shade covering, or whatever the customer needs in their outdoor living space.”

Hardscapes are design elements that don’t change over the years as your garden develops. They can include rocks, pathways, retaining walls, patios, and the driveway. While trendy outdoor kitchens might seem to up the luxury factor, the ability to cook and entertain outdoors offers convenience and a way to simplify everyday living.

One standard King Landscaping feature is a sitting wall — a spot constructed of stone or concrete where people can gather for conversation around a fire pit or fireplace. King also believes a water feature is a nice accent element. “It gives a backyard

character and a quiet ambiance that creates a romantic, tranquil area in the garden.”

And while what’s growing in the ground provides a lush backdrop for outdoor activities, he recognizes that a landscape is never finished until you can enjoy it in the evening. “A lot of our clients are working from daybreak until dusk. They want to come home and enjoy their fire pit, grill a steak, have a margarita and watch their kids play in the grass.”

Lighting plays a key role for enhancing a landscape. From highlighting pathways and patios, to uplighting trees, King utilizes high tech lighting systems constructed to withstand heat and the sun’s rays. He also recommends installing a second system for holiday lighting.

The icing on the cake means including shady spots for sitting, socializing, and enjoying time outdoors. Staying comfortable, while taking Colorado’s all-weather seasons into account, is essential when creating a luxury home oasis.

With over 300 days of Colorado sunshine, people want to optimize their outdoor living spaces, Julie Heyer, co-owner of Greeley Tent & Awning, said. Advances in technology offer automated products which homeowners can use to have both control over and protection from Colorado’s diverse weather patterns. And while the goal at the outset is blocking the sun’s rays without obscuring the view, savings on energy costs are what awnings and patio systems are all about, Heyer said.

“By reducing the amount of solar gain coming in through your windows or on your patio, you can reduce the impact of sunlight on the interior temperature of your home, decreasing air conditioning use and incurring savings — you’ll replace furniture and carpet less often if you can prevent sun damage,” she said.

Among a wide variety of shade resources, the 118-year-old Greeley company offers Corradi wood pergolas with automated retractable awnings, awning systems from NuImage Awnings, and Sol-Lux, solar window awnings powered by the sun that have wind and rain sensors.

Both companies meet one-on-one with clients to create an individualized plan, recognizing that landscaping is an investment in your home.

King recommends planning to spend between 5 to 10 percent of your home’s value when budgeting landscaping for new construction. Existing homes can take advantage of what’s already in place, but lifestyles are personal and tastes can develop and change.

He believes Thomas Jefferson said it best: “I am an old man but a young gardener.” For King, that translates to meaning that your garden is never finished. “There’s always something you can do to make it beautiful and different. When traveling, snap photos of landscape ideas and let your garden grow and evolve.”

Shady spots for sitting, socializing, and enjoying time outdoors incorporate designer stamped concrete, automated retractable awnings, and furniture that brings the interior of your home outside. (Photo: Emily Kemme). A good landscape design integrates a variety of hardscapes with plants selected to complement growing conditions in your yard. (Photo courtesy

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of Don King Landscaping).

> Don King Landscaping, P.O. Box 372, Erie, 303.828.3641, donkinglandscaping@yahoo.com

> Greeley Tent & Awning, 2209 9th St., Greeley, 970.352.0253, greeleytentawning@gmail.com

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