Southview Design Wins MNLA Award for Edina Backyard Design

Southview Design won a 2015 award for Excellence in Landscape Design from the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association (MNLA) this month.

Southview Design landscape designer Colleen Moran won the award for the suburban backyard design she created for an Edina family.

The Edina property offers views and access to Lake Cornelia. After razing the original house and building another in its place, they then turned their attention to the backyard, and chose Southview Design. Their wish list included a lakeside spot for morning coffee and family dinners, a fire pit for roasting s’mores, and enough yard space for their children and dogs to play.

Although the home was on a higher elevation – the drop from the sliding glass doors to the ground is about eight feet – the one stipulation was that they didn’t want a deck. This required thinking outside the box, said Moran.

Moran’s design combined tiered paver patios and a modular block retaining wall, built to fit the scale of the home. The tiered walls were sized and constructed to create livable spaces, including a dining area, fire pit, and areas for plants and flowers, including daylilies, junipers, crabapple, phlox, spruce, hydrangea, Alpine currant, and astilbe.

One key issue was that if the retaining walls jutted too far out from the house, they would block their neighbor’s view of the lake. So Moran and the Edina homeowners sat in the neighbor’s lower level family room and determined just where the walls had to turn the corner.

Southview also had to replace an existing wall on the property line, which required them to work from the neighbor’s property. As a courtesy, Southview offered the neighbors a free perennial garden design to their satisfaction and delight.

The construction required Moran to plan ahead and carefully check the grading away from the house. Materials on-site were kept organized and covered to prevent run-off. Sleeves and piping were preplanned for irrigation, lighting, and gas for the paver patio fire pit. Drain tiles and ports were installed within the retaining walls.

Colleen Moran accepted the award at the MNLA Awards Gala on Jan. 14, 2015.

For photos of the award-winning backyard design, visit the page on Southview Design: http://southviewdesign.com/landscape-designs/2014-projects/thinking-outside-the-deck.html. For more landscaping and backyard design ideas, visit www.southviewdesign.com.