In short, Backyard Living is a mindset, wherein the unbuilt parts of your real estate are transformed into a new type of living area. One that is as much a part of your home as the parts with air conditioning. A place that you want to go TO, not through.  It doesn't mean any particular type of plant, or project, or the condition of your grass. Sure, there are many accouterments or items that can be present. Some people enjoy a paver patio, a well designed planting, a green thick turf that you enjoy mowing, a pond with beautiful waterfalls and pet koi, outdoor kitchens for entertaining without much work, boulders surrounded by creeping ground covers, a fire pit to add the fire element to those Fall nights, or Japanese Maples to beckon each new season with brilliance and suspense.

    There is a new horizon in the landscape industry these days. Passing now are the days when the biggest question in landscape design was which shades of green hollies to use in the one front bed.
    With almost 30% of homeowners using a lawn maintenance service, this industry is approaching critical mass and is in a refinement period.  The thought of paying for "yard work" is hardly snuffed at anymore, now the question is when.  The landscape architect is no longer reserved only for large commercial designs but is increasingly doing residential work. Not just on $3 million dollar homes, either.
    White picket fences are still found in the landscape, though. But instead of surrounding the typical suburban front yard, they are found outback, paint deliberately cracking, dissapearing under a wisteria vine. And that, in a nutshell is where the landscape has gone. To the backyard.  Of course the front yard is still important, but the five point hollies that used to flank the front entrances to half of all American homes have been quietly replaced with ruby red lorapetalum with it's soft, red, inviting texture.  Formality is being displaced by invitation.
    Often this evolution can be sourced to larger trends, but an important factor is the American work experience.  As trade and labor oriented jobs have headed south and east, they have been replaced by technology type jobs, and our ideas of fair pay and retirement have changed as well. Information availability and business competition in all industries has led to an increasingly well informed customer. As a result, this customer, at all levels, demands better, cheaper, faster. And they should, our nature is constant improvement.
     With constant improvement though, comes decreased job security, and performanced based pay, and the possibility of no retirement.  This has led to an increase in the mental stress level of the  American professional worker. Sure there is stress in labor oriented professions, but it is a different stress, mainly from physical exertion and a lack of freedom from the grind.  But both sides of this coin are experiencing an unfulfillment in their work.  
    There is much to be said on the aforementioned dynamic.  No situation is static though, and while some conditions seem to be deteriorating there is a resultant increase in Americans searching for ways to unwind, relax, and detach themselves from their work life and other stresses.  Mechanical, impersonal and cutthroat, their work atmosphere doesn't offer much in the way of fulfillment, or a sense of accomplishment.  Developments with the national economy only serve to aggravate these conditions.

    When Americans leave work and come home, they want to experience peace, relaxation and a sense of fulfillment. Other than religion, Nature is the most renowned source for these intangibles that aren't available on your list of benefits at work. Most Americans have the opportunity to experience nature around their own homes, in their yards. The fresh air, the breeze, birds chirping, water flowing, viewing the harmony of plants of different colors and textures growing together, varying terrains, the ancient feel of stone and......on and on.  All of it, though inexplicable is like an ethereal, silent orchestra, that calms the mind and reminds you that nothing is more important than this moment, right now, stop doing, just be.

    I suppose the entrance of backyard living into the collective American mind is automatic, an outcropping of the obvious.  Your backyard, yours.  Money is not the issue. Personal sanctuary, a gathering place for your thoughts and your loved ones, a play land for the kids.  You are the issue.