Country living by design

by jason_cramp | October 19, 2016 8:23 am

By Jason Jayne

[1]

A family in Caledon, Ont., recently built its dream home. There were many reasons why everyone loved this location, such as the daily sightings of deer in the adjacent farmers fields that terminated in the local foothills. However, as the dust from construction settled, they realized despite their view, they could clearly hear the echo of the major highway just over a kilometre away. This reverberated through the landscape and woke the family up during the night when the bedroom windows were kept open for fresh air.

Additionally, although the bulldozer operator accomplished positive drainage away from the structure during construction, it created a handicap for a landscape designer left with an uninteresting canvas. The clients agreed the prevailing winds not only carried the road noise to their backyard, but was also an issue for living in that space. The family also wanted numerous recreational and entertaining features to fit with the family’s active lifestyle. The design team came up with a plan addressing all of these criterion to create a private oasis designed to encourage human connections. A natural feel was a given in this rural setting.

Integration

[2]

This new home towered three stories above people when walking out of the lower ground-level exit. This is a fairly common problem with new homes as the builder and, subsequently, homeowners rarely think about how it will connect with the outdoors at this stage. Gently curving flagstone walkways were created in and around mature white pines and spruce trees that were installed with tree spades. These 4.6-m (15-ft) trees instantly brought the house down in its scale to a more human level, making it not so imposing.

Extensive modification to the existing grades further served to ‘sink’ the home into the landscape—an important technique often underused in the industry. Large berms were constructed off either corner of the rear property to start creating a cozy backyard setting that now has defined limits in connection with the sprawling property and views. Further definition was made by extending these berms in a curved fashion around to the far side of the pool, terminating at the newly installed cedar pool cabana complete with a wet bar. This accomplished the comforting feeling of enclosure the clients craved in the now ‘contained’ backyard recreation area.

Installing upward of 40 full-size evergreens on different levels of this extensive berming heightened the feeling of depth of field and created a multilevel environment. This established a notable measure of protection as the prevailing winds are now deflected above the living spaces on the leeward side of this open country area. The trees also helped to absorb the road noise and create an amphitheater effect for the water feature. Additionally, they create snow drop zones before it reaches the driveway and home and helps define the open lawns. Extensive turf need not be totally eliminated in a landscape, but must be balanced with all the other elements as there is still the desire for grass underfoot.

Managing the views and space

[3]

It was very important to maintain strategic openings through the gardens and trees to enhance the key scenic views across to the Caledon Mountain in the distance. As in good photography, it is important to identify the main view or focal point and ‘frame’ it with trees or landscape features to amplify it.

To strengthen the organic design esthetic, a fibreglass pool with natural flowing lines was installed as the centrepiece to anchor this project. Gracious flagstone decking was installed to allow for spacious lounging and the ability to easily entertain several families. It is important to think about the increased space clients actually need for loungers and engaging more than two or three guests as opposed to the traditional 0.9 m (3 ft) of ‘sidewalk’ that wraps around pools. For this reason, the design team also created a ‘break-out’ area just off the pool deck, allowing larger gatherings to effortlessly spill over onto the adjacent lawn area kept at the same level.

A fire pit with natural stone boulder seating completes the picture when the entire project comes to life at night with dramatic lighting. The system includes light-emitting diode (LED) lighting in the pool to make the white fibreglass dazzle.

[4]

To further connect the home’s different levels, an extensive wooden deck was installed at the upper-level walkout with steps down to a new intermediate dining area complete with patio furniture and an umbrella. The design team chose to use tempered glass railings in these areas to protect a little more from the wind and open up as much visual access to the landscape and water features as possible. Intermediate levels are very important in keeping a connection to the landscape, rather than the giant unsightly flights of steps usually accompanying upper and lower terraces.

Continuing to follow these steps down brings one to the intermediate hot tub area. Installing a tub between the upper and lower walkouts allows for efficient and meaningful traffic flow between all levels of this landscape and home. Additionally, the heightened vantage point of the hot tub cantilevered over the falls and lower pond area allows one to survey the entire water course, waterfalls, reflecting pond, sand beach play area, and pool at the same time.

Natural connections to water

With an extensive change to the grades in place, this allowed for a substantial water feature to be created with many cascades from the upper level all the way down and around—terminating in a serene reflecting pond complete with water lilies, flowering aquatic plants, and fish for the children to feed daily. The water course purposefully meanders off the edge of the mid-level dining area and wraps around the hot tub and under the natural stone bridge to come to rest only 3 m (10 ft) from the swimming pool. To further enhance this falling water, carefully placed misters were installed in conjunction with the irrigation system to create fog that envelops visitors in an aura of mystery.

[5]

Introducing these separate bodies of water, each with their own specific purpose, adds tremendous dimension and appeal to this backyard oasis. Much attention was given to designing and projecting different sounds the water feature emitted to further mask the road noise and replace it with pleasant background noise, but still allow for intimate conversation nearby.

Perhaps one of the most interesting elements is the addition of a natural sand beach play area directly adjacent to the pool terrace. This allows for the interaction of entire families as each person can be entertained while remaining close together. A natural stone staircase up from the beach sand allows pedestrians to access and walk the open natural areas of the property—gently curving garden bed edges to enhance the natural feel. This turf layout technique, along with a mulched ‘ring’ created around each tree in the lawn, helps reduce ongoing maintenance as riding mowers can efficiently navigate these borders. A play structure was also installed on the opposite side of the pool in an adjoining lawn area within close distance of the parents’ watchful eyes.

Conclusion

As a landscape designer or installer, it is good to keep in mind these design principles that were used to address the challenges and create interesting features. These ideas are applicable to a project of any size and scale. The vision must start with the designer as it is his or her responsibility to present sound ideas and solutions to clients to continue to raise the bar in the industry and provide a product and service that has positive and tangible affects on the daily lives of their families.

[6]Jason Jayne is the business manager at Tumber & Associates, a landscape design-and-build firm headed by Randy Tumber, who has been designing and building natural landscapes for more than 35 years. The company specializes in mature, native landscape projects that lie just north of the Greater Toronto Area, planning and developing entire sites and project for its clients. Jayne been with the company for more than 15 years and regularly contributes articles and photography to many industry and consumer outlets. He can be reached via e-mail at jason@tumber.ca[7]. For more information, visit www.tumber.ca[8].

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/trade/country-living-by-design/

---