Outdoor Living in the New Hampshire Lakes Region
Outdoor Living features in the landscape can include anything that draws you out of the house and engages you in the outside environment. While hardscaping provides structure in a landscape design – and plantings soften that structure while providing privacy – they still aren’t enough to entice you to spend time in your yard.
Designing Outdoor Living spaces in the New Hampshire Lakes Region landscape can be challenging – only because there are so many diverse options!
A Landscape Design for Your Lifestyle
That’s why a significant part of our landscape design process is spent on lifestyle discovery. We aren’t being nosy! Our goal is to have you involved in your yard as much as possible. We want “home” to be your favorite place to be.
These are three main functions that we look at when designing Outdoor Living spaces: Community, Relaxation, and Fitness & Fun. Within those three categories there are multiple options.
Building Community
Do you enjoy entertaining and spending time with friends and family? Here are some outdoor living elements that promote bringing people together:
Outdoor Kitchens
There is nothing like food to draw people together! Outdoor Kitchens can be as simple as a growing closure or as complex as a food preparation area with countertops, sinks, appliances, and task lighting.
Pergolas
People congregate to areas where there is comfortable seating and side tables. A pergola can be a simple open-air arbor to provide shade, or a hardtop gazebo with motorized shades can protect your guests from all of the elements.
Pools and Spas
Swimming pools, hot tubs, and spas hit all three categories of building community relaxation and activities. Pick your favorite water source and we will design the environment around it for you!
Indulgent Relaxation
Perhaps entertaining isn’t your thing. Life is busy and stressful, so what you value most is a place to relax and unwind. Here are some outdoor living elements that promote relaxation:
Water Features
The only elements that introduce sound to the landscape are water features. And it doesn’t take much to provide a soothing background sound that also blocks out peripheral noise. Some of these subtle, low-maintenance features could include pondless waterfalls, wall fountains, or freestanding urn fountains.
Landscape Lighting
Aside from benefit of safety and security, low-voltage landscape lighting extends your outdoor enjoyment time in a peaceful setting. When we “paint the night with light,” it creates a very different world than what we see during the daytime.
Fireplaces and Fire Pits
Nothing relaxes like the warmth of a crackling fire on a cool evening. Fire pits and outdoor fireplaces are a great way to relax – and build Community in an intimate setting.
Sporting Fitness and Fun
Some families have very active lifestyles. The outside living elements that family members value the most are ones that provide opportunities to play, exercise, and have fun.
Putting Greens
Some might consider golf relaxing – some might not! A putting green is a great way to spend some time outside while improving your game.
Sport Courts
There’s nothing like a quick pick-up game of basketball for teens and young adults to work out some energy. A backyard tennis court helps couples to stay fit without having to go to the club.
Perched Beach
One of the great advantages of living on a lake is the ability to enjoy endless hours of water sports. Leveling the shoreline with a perched beach provides easy access to the water and a place for some to hang out while others are swimming or boating.
These are just some of the Outdoor Living elements that can be incorporated into your landscape plan. Spend some time thinking about what you enjoy doing the most – then give Groundhog Landscaping a call to schedule a consultation. If you can dream it, we can build it!
