The year that changed outdoor living forever—and how to make the most of it.
For the past year-plus, the outdoors has been our saving grace. It’s where we went to find peace in the uncertainty of our “new normal”; where restaurants turned to survive, ushering patrons around heat lamps and into personal igloos; where weary frontline workers found respite from overwhelmed schools and hospitals. With that embracing of it as a safe haven has come a newfound respect for it, a reinvigorated valuing of the five yards or five acres we call our backyards.
“The pandemic undoubtedly surfaced an appreciation for our yards like we’ve never seen before,” says Allison Messner, CEO and co-founder of, an online landscape design service that provides clients with virtual renderings of their dream outdoor space, then connects them with the local pros that can make it happen. “Our yards have become the space to do essentially everything we also do inside—dine, cook, entertain, work, play, and relax.
The slow, stay-at-home pace of life this last year has also encouraged many of us to embrace gardening, according to Arianna lappini, a garden designer and owner of. “It has quickly transitioned from an ‘I’ve always wanted to try that’ hobby to the top of the to-do list for a lot of people,” she explains.
Though the importance of our outdoor spaces is now indisputable, it’s still unclear what long-term impacts pandemic life will have on how we invest in our open-to-air hangouts.
“We've seen what it's like to be stuck at home, and now everyone is looking around and realizing they've been underutilizing their outdoor spaces,” says
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