When they moved nine years ago to their home, which overlooks Saskatchewan Hospital and North Battleford Golf and Country Club to the north and rolling hills to the south, they could barely see the view over the 60-year-old caraganas that had overtaken the backyard.
The first impression Linda and Steven Jackson's yard makes on visitors is a sense of its designers. Each element, from the dry riverbed to the stained-glass windows lining the outdoor living spaces in the backyard, is personal and illustrates some period of their life.
Their son was married in the summer that first year and Linda and Steven arranged to host the rehearsal dinner, so the first project on the list to get done was the front yard. The septic tank needed to be installed and the resulting turned up dirt was a perfect opportunity to do something innovative. The Jacksons settled on using a variety of rocks to create a faux dry riverbed. The rest of the expansive yard is somewhat more conventional, with a small deck that catches the hot afternoon sun, perfect for sun tanning, as well as a random assortment of pots of flowers and ornaments.
The next year it was time to tackle the backyard. Getting rid of a yard full of half-century old caraganas was as difficult as it sounds and, Linda says, they spent a full summer picking roots.
In the third year, the backyard was finally ready for the Jacksons to add their personal touch, the operative word being "personal." The Jacksons are responsible for every stage of their backyard’s growth – from finding inspiration and making up the plan, to doing all the arduous work.
Inspiration, in Linda’s case, is a combination of seeing what others have done and coming up with anything she thinks will look nice.
“We just kind of do whatever we like,” she says.
The Jacksons' projects range from water features ornamented with metallic-looking orbs to a barbecuing patio protected from inclement weather with old stained-glass windows. In the front yard, particularly, inspiration was found mainly from the five winters the Jacksons spent down south.
“Where the fountain is, where it looks like a dry riverbed,” Linda says, “at the time we had been going to Arizona during the winter and that’s where that idea came from. The fence in the front, we got that idea from Arizona, too.”
With the stained glass, inspiration came second. Linda bought them from Notre Dame church before she even knew what to do with them, she says, so she had to come up with something. In their previous home, the colourful windows adorned the front porch. After they moved, there wasn’t a place for the stained glass inside, so Linda devised to use them as screens around the two distinct outdoor living areas. Now, the windows have new purpose and their bright pops of colour, in addition to the vibrant flower features arranged through the yard, create a sense of cheeriness that is carried from space to space.
These areas surrounded by the stained glass also happen to be Linda and her family’s most enjoyed.
“I think we spend more time in the back (yard). There’s nothing we enjoy more than sitting back with a beer and enjoying the view.”
Even so, she can’t pick a favourite spot, she says.
“It doesn’t matter where we sit, we just love it.”
When you and your family have a picturesque yard that is wholly owed to your hard work at every step of the way, it’s not hard to see why.
