Our backyard has come a long way since we first moved into our house three and a half years ago! Home projects are such an exercise in patience for me but honestly it’s probably been good that we’ve chipped away at things over time as it’s helpful to see progress in stages as opposed to needing to have a comprehensive vision for every space from the start. Anyway! Two years ago, we renovated our pool, built a stone patio, replaced the fence, and planted tons of new trees (blog post on all that here!). Last year, we installed a garden house at the far end of the pool and hung these trellises along the long window-less garage wall. And this year, I’m really excited to start the next phase of adding in more landscaping to soften the edges of the patio and get some flowers in the ground!
A photo of our backyard two summers ago…
…and the Yardzen rendering of the same angle!
Designing a backyard from scratch
My mom is a passionnate gardener and I’m excited for her to teach me (and our boys!) more about planting and taking care of our favorite flowers now that we have the larger, more structural elements of our backyard in place. That said, I didn’t want her to feel solely responsible for coming up with an entire backyard plan from scratch and I had seen a couple friends on Instagram rave about their experience working with Yardzen, a company you can send photos and videos of your outdoor space and receive comprehensive digital renderings and garden plans in return. They take into account your favorite flowers, what grows best in your location, and how much sun or shade a particular part of your yard receives and then send back incredibly lifelike digital renderings as well as a complete game plan for bringing those renderings to life. To say our jaws hit the floor when we received these renderings of what our backyard could become is a total understatement! They were kind enough to gift us their full yard package but I would have happily paid full price for this guidance — and I’m so thrilled they’re offering you $100 off any design package with code MACKENZIE100 on their site! (*promotion has expired)
Yardzen plans for our backyard
We received 15 Yardzen renderings of various angles of our front and back yards as part of their full yard package and I’m so excited to start bringing some of them to life this spring. We planted climbing roses in front of the trellises last year (I have some work to do to train them more horizontally than vertically thanks to a few messages I received on Instagram!) but our big project this spring will be adding the landscaping around the chaise lounges on the right side of the pool (the renderings you see here!). The boxwood hedges should be arriving this week or next and I can’t wait to soften and define this space by creating some separation between the patio edge and the yard beyond it. I will document more of the process once plants start to arrive but I wanted to share the Yardzen renderings in case any of you are looking for a similar service!
Making the Yardzen renderings come to life
Aren’t the renderings incredible? They even nailed our outdoor furniture and striped umbrellas that I told them we’d be using (will link each item below!). I’m so excited to continue making these renderings come to life this spring (with some little tweaks along the way!). You can browse all the different Yardzen design packages here and don’t forget code MACKENZIE100 for $100 off any of them! (*promotion has expired)
I’m definitely eager to learn more about gardening in the years to come but we do have a professional landscaper coming in to get the boxwoods and trees in the ground! Almost always some combination of DIY and outsourcing over here. 🙂 You can follow along on Instagram if you want to see more of the process unfold in the coming weeks!
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