It\u2019s the middle of April, and a guy who lives in Rochester is still scraping ice off his grill. A guy in Atlantic City, though, has already mowed his lawn twice, and he\u2019s sneezing his head off from all the dandelion pollen in the air.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a long winter, and both of these guys are excited to fire up their barbecues, but their plans for anything that involves being outside will be very different.<\/p>\n
That backyard in Rochester is like a sponge right now.<\/p>\n
The top layer of soil has thawed, but everything under that is still completely frozen. That means that water can\u2019t seep into the ground, and instead of that, it sits on top and turns everything into mud.<\/p>\n
The backyard in AC has a different problem: the soil is sandy, and it drains too fast for the water to linger even a little bit, and thanks to the ocean air, the wind sprinkles salt all over everything.<\/p>\n
As you can see, each of these guys has his own little chaos to deal with.<\/p>\n
You see your dream backyard in a magazine, and decide that that\u2019s exactly what you want. But you don\u2019t know where that picture was taken, and chances are that the climate there is different than yours.<\/p>\n
Whether you like it or not, geography is the boss here, and if you ignore it, you\u2019re just setting yourself up for failure.<\/p>\n
Inland New York gets absolutely buried under snow, and it sticks around for months. The ground under it freezes, then it thaws, then it freezes again. That cycle can cause cracks in the concrete,<\/a> and it can pop fence posts out of the ground.<\/p>\n Nothing you leave outside will survive.<\/p>\n Winters are much milder in AC, and it gets a lot more rain than snow.<\/p>\n The ground doesn\u2019t even freeze so deeply that it causes issues. If you own a home by the coast, you can leave your furniture out and even enjoy it here and there during winter.<\/p>\n That ocean breeze in AC feels so lovely in July, but when you remember that it never stops, you can understand how annoying it can be. If your furniture is lightweight, it\u2019ll turn into a projectile the moment you put it outside.<\/p>\n Inland NY gets wind, too, but it\u2019s much calmer there.<\/p>\n You can get away with light chairs and open shelves without issues. You can sit and enjoy your morning coffee in your backyard in NY, whereas you\u2019d need windbreaks in AC in order to be able to do the same.<\/p>\n Atlantic City is covered in salt spray. If you leave your grill outside and you don\u2019t rinse it down regularly, you can say goodbye to it within a season or 2 because the salt will eat through the metal.<\/p>\n Inland NY, on the other hand, battles the heavy snowmelt and humid summers. This can rot anything made of wood from the ground up and turn a wooden deck into a mold farm. This is why you should leave stuff like this to the pros.<\/p>\n A deck builder in Camillus NY<\/a> will know the local climate well enough that they can design a deck that will withstand it.<\/p>\n You\u2019re probably comparing the two backyards in your head and thinking which homeowner got the short end of the stick. But actually, neither of the 2 options is necessarily better. There\u2019s no winner here. You just have to work with what you have and make the most of it.<\/p>\n And speaking of making the most of it, a few tweaks can make life a lot easier.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with Atlantic City.<\/p>\n Yes, the wind there doesn\u2019t quit, but you wouldn\u2019t really want it to because the summer would be impossible to survive without it. Still, you probably want to break it up a\u00a0 little, and you can use tall ornamental grasses for it or a slatted fence.Inland NY doesn\u2019t have this problem, but if you\u2019re there, you have snow to think of, and after that snow thaws, there\u2019s plenty of water left that can cause trouble.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need good storage in New York because of the nasty winters.<\/p>\n You have to have a place that can protect your garden furniture<\/a> and tools, so a shed or a deck is a must. Those in Atlantic City don\u2019t have to play hide and seek with their garden stuff during winter, but they still need some kind of storage.Otherwise, the salt\u2019ll rust everything metal in its path.<\/p>\n Plastic bins work fine here, but if you\u2019re inland, you\u2019ll have better luck with a heavy wooden chest.<\/p>\n As you can clearly see, both of those guys can enjoy their backyards, but they can\u2019t ignore the environment around them. When you think of outdoor living, you\u2019ll probably focus on landscaping or furniture, and while that\u2019s important, it comes later.<\/p>\n The most important thing you have to deal with is your climate, and then you can move on to cushions.<\/p>\n