Outdoor Living Spaces for All Seasons: How to Enjoy Your Northern Virginia Backyard Year-Round

If you’re going to invest in landscaping, you want to maximize the value of that investment by getting as much use as possible. That might mean adding outdoor living features that allow you to spend more time outside, even at times of the year when the weather normally wouldn’t be so welcoming.

In this article, we’ll dive into year-round landscaping ideas to help you get the most out of your outdoor living area.

We’ve asked Amanda McNiff, our Landscape Designer, to share some of her best seasonal landscaping ideas to help you succeed.

In this article, we will cover:

• How to Build a Landscape for All Seasons in Arlington
• Outdoor Living Features for Cold Weather
• Outdoor Living Ideas for Summer Months
• Which Plants Are Best for All Seasons?
• Choosing Landscape Design in Northern VA

After reading this article, we hope you’ll have plenty of seasonal landscaping ideas to help you enjoy your outdoor areas to the fullest.

How to Build a Landscape for All Seasons in Arlington

Getting the most out of your outdoor living space throughout the year means thinking about the seasons.

It’s easy to plan a comfortable landscape and enjoy when the weather is agreeable. But thinking outside the box means considering outdoor living features that will help you enjoy your space even when the weather isn’t perfect.

That can mean adding shelter so that you can be outside in the rain, shade so that you can be outside in the sun, and heat so that you can be outside in the cold. Not all landscape companies consider these details when landscaping for outdoor living.

Often, they’re just trying to put together the fastest patio design so they can move onto the next project.

In the next sections, we will cover seasonal landscaping ideas for the hottest and coldest months of the year.

Outdoor Living Features for Cold Weather

Although it is not as cold here as other parts of the country, we still get freezing temperatures, snow, and ice. These conditions can make it nearly impossible to think about being outside.

However, with the right outdoor living features, you can enjoy time outside, even when it gets chilly. Here are some ideas.

Fire Features

Amanda suggests that getting more out of your outdoor living space in the winter might mean incorporating features like fire pits and outdoor fireplaces that allow you to spend time outdoors even when it’s chilly.

“Fire features can go a long way in extending the season,” she says. “You’ll especially get more out of the tail-end of the fall and be able to get outside sooner in the spring. But we also have some mild winter days where a fire feature would help make it more pleasant outside.”

Electric Heaters

Amanda says electric heaters can also be incorporated into an outdoor living space to help warm it up.

Patio heaters became particularly popular during the pandemic, when restaurants started using them to allow more people to enjoy outdoor dining. These heaters can warm up a space and make it more comfortable to be outdoors when it’s cold.

Landscape Lighting

Since it gets dark sooner in the colder months, landscape lighting can be another valuable addition to extend your time outside, suggests Amanda. This will also allow you to use your outdoor spaces for longer in the warm months as many people love taking their summer parties into the evening hours.

Amanda adds that people might also consider holiday lighting during the holidays to make their outdoor spaces festive and bright.

Screened-In Porches

Amanda adds that screened-in porches have also become increasingly popular as “year-round” spaces to enjoy the outdoors. These are sometimes called “all-season rooms” or “sun rooms.”

“Last year I designed a screened porch with a fireplace in it,” she shares. “That is a really great way to enjoy the outdoors all year long.”

Spas & Hot Tubs

Another outdoor living feature homeowners often associate with incorporating for colder months is a hot tub or spa, says Amanda. Of course, hot tubs can be used all year long but people tend to use them more when it’s not already scorching hot outside.

A lot of forethought and planning should go into adding a spa to maximize enjoyment and functionality.

“I have done a couple of projects where we built the spa with access directly off deck or tried to conceal it a little bit so not just sticking up,” Amanda says. “This also helps give you privacy. You also want to make sure it’s not too far from the house as you’ll use it a lot more if you don’t have to walk through the whole yard when it’s cold out.”

Outdoor Living Ideas for Summer Months

When homeowners think about getting more out of year-round landscaping, they consider extending the season into the colder months. But in the summer, people can also end up “stuck indoors” because it’s too hot, says Amanda.

You’ll also want to consider outdoor living features that can help cool down your space and make it more enjoyable during those scorching hot days.

Shade

“You’ll want to think about ideas that will help give you shade,” Amanda says. “You can achieve shade with plants, but you can also get it from structures like pergolas and pavilions.”

Shade makes an outdoor space much more tolerable during hot and sunny days and can greatly extend your time outdoors.

Wall-Mounted Fans

Amanda also suggests wall-mount fans to help move air. These can be added to a pergola or another overhanging structure. The moving air can also help keep mosquitoes away.

Screened-In Porches

While some might consider this an option for extending “outdoor time” into the colder months, a screened-in porch is also a place to enjoy the summer months if it’s too uncomfortable to be exposed to the sun.

Adding a fan to a screened-in porch can help cool it down and give you a place to escape the heat (and the bugs). These are popular locations where people can enjoy a summer meal.

Which Plants Are Best for All Seasons?

If you’re looking for landscapes for all seasons, you might also be interested in learning what plants would work best in your landscape.

Of course, here in Northern Virginia, it does get cold enough that plants will go dormant (or annuals will die off) over the winter. Northern Virginia falls primarily into Zone 7b for planting.

Generally, our last frost date is in mid-April and our first frost date is in mid-November. Planting zones help landscapers determine what is best to install in the local landscape.

Amanda says you might want to look at evergreens if you want more year-round interest out of your plants. Evergreens are trees and shrubs that remain green in the winter months.

“I also like ornamental grasses and think they look really cool in the winter,” Amanda says. “There are also many plants with berries that add a nice pop of color. They can also attract colorful birds.”

Choosing Landscape Design in Northern VA

Hopefully, this article has given you some seasonal landscaping ideas. If you are considering investing in landscaping, you want to get the most possible value and enjoyment out of that space.

Of course, it all comes down to choosing the right landscape designer to complete your project. Landscaping companies often want to complete as many outdoor living projects as possible and do not consider all the crucial details.

You want to ensure that you’re working with a company that can handle the design and construction of your project with true expertise.

It helps to partner with a pro who will listen to your ideas and bring their skill and expertise. Together, you can craft your dream space.

Ultimately, making a wise choice will help give you peace of mind. By choosing the right landscaping contractor for the work, you’ll feel confident that you have the optimal solution for enhancing your property and enjoying the outdoors all year round.

If you want to be confident that your landscape design will have everything it needs, request a landscape consultation, get your customized plan, and relax as you receive the royal treatment.