Going Yard — Season 2

Chris tackles a yard so unusable, the homeowners' two young daughters would rather play in the driveway than in the large yard behind the house. The space opens to an uneven brick patio, sloping yard and a play area that's too far from the house for the parents to easily supervise. Chris and his team design a space that blends in with the home's natural surroundings, yet is functional for the family's needs. The team demos the dangerous patio and levels the yard. They create a massive stone patio, with raised dining deck, a natural-looking waterfall and pond with fish and a beautiful gazebo set high on a slope, designed for gazing over the yard. And to keep the children happy, a hand-made outdoor xylophone becomes the centerpiece of the garden.

Chris and his team find design inspiration in a couple's old shed. After the homeowners visit Italy, where they dine al fresco, the homeowners ask Chris to create a Tuscan ambiance in their own backyard. Chris re-purposes the old shed to become an outdoor dining room. After moving it to a better location with a crane, the team removes some of the walls and begins creating an "old" Italian dining space. They put in a new stone patio, an outdoor kitchen, and unique pond. A sitting area around a beautiful outdoor fireplace becomes a second room in the garden, surrounded by colorful plantings.

Chris creates a yard that literally goes from trash to treasure. The homeowners had been saving old bathtubs and coffee urns to use as planters, but simply didn't have time to create the eclectic yard of their dreams. Chris and his team tackle a huge clean-up project before they can begin designing the small backyard. They expand a tiny deck to be closer to a hot tub, redesign an outdoor shower, add a stone patio with a fire pit and extra seating, and create a unique rebar arbor that leads to a children's play area. To enhance the small yard's growing area, the team attaches planting pockets to the side of a garage and creates a beautiful vertical garden.

A well-traveled homeowner creates the perfect design challenge when she requests a Caribbean backyard in Cape Cod. With colorful, beachy inspiration, Chris gives the homeowner what she wants, with a twist. Chris creates a wrap-around deck that leads into the new backyard and solves a tricky backyard access problem. A Caribbean-themed bar with a clever metal roof becomes the yard's focal point, surrounded by a stone patio with a fire pit, dining area and sitting area. Chris reuses the homeowner's hammock, under a new pergola to give her a shady space to relax. And to complete the tropical theme, Chris uses colorful, lush plants and even sand, to mimic the feel of the Caribbean.

Chris and his team must work around a beautiful, but rooty tree to give homeowners the backyard creative retreat they're asking for. The tree's shade and prominent roots prevent grass from growing in the backyard, so Chris builds a deck to level out the space over the roots. An attached bar and seating area makes the deck an enticing hangout. Nearby, a dining area and propane fire pit provide additional seating. And a rustic outdoor cabana becomes the creative retreat the couple has always wanted, complete with desks where they can set up their laptop computers. Chris plants shade-tolerant and colorful plants to give the entire yard a cohesive feel.

This young couple, known for their love of animals and the outdoors, mystify their family with their huge overgrown backyard filled with old wood piles and weeds. It's simply unusable. The couple realize they have a diamond in the rough, but they just don't know how to create the space they want for them, their families, and their beloved pet dog and pot-bellied pig. Chris encourages the couple to think big and use their expansive yard for the play and entertainment spaces they've always wanted. Chris and his team create a Nautical-themed yard centered around a three-level deck that stretches well into the backyard. The levels help define the sitting and dining areas. Chris shows how to use plantings right in the deck to soften the area and provide shade. The couple's love of the outdoors is celebrated with a beach-inspired fire pit surrounded by sand, beach grasses and Adirondack chairs. And Chris shows how his attention to design details ensures that even a pig pen can look attractive in well-crafted backyard.

A theatrical family of four wants a backyard where they can entertain and put on performances, but they have little privacy, an unsightly oil tank and a scorched yard that keeps everyone away. Chris and his team create a massive outdoor kitchen, complete with a pergola, pizza oven, fire pit and loads of extra seating. Lush sod, colorful plantings and a clever outdoor stage make this a yard to where entertaining takes center stage.

A young couple determined to live close to the land, hires Chris and his crew to create a beautiful urban farm in their backyard. The couple already have a beehive, but they want to be able to walk outside their door to harvest an entire meal, and serve and prepare it in an outdoor dining area. Chris designs an eclectic backyard where the couple can grow and eat their own food in an inviting outdoor space. The new yard comes complete with raised planters for vegetables and herbs. Using a door salvaged from the couple's rickety wooden shed, Chris creates an adorable chicken coop and tool shed.

Chris and his team tackle a huge backyard overrun with poison ivy and wood chips. A couple and their toddler daughter are only able to use a small, old deck for entertaining because the rest of the yard is too hazardous. They ask Chris to design a space that will allow them to host large family barbecues and play dates

When a couple can't agree on how to create a beautiful, but low maintenance backyard, Chris and his team take over. The homeowners love to dine, practice yoga, and entertain outside, and ask Chris to create a space that will meet their needs. Chris extends the home's covered patio to include a steel pergola over a new dining and yoga area. Decking extends through the yard, leading to an unusual sunken fire pit with comfortable cushion seating. And the focal point of the yard is a no-maintenance yin-yang garden with decorative footbridge leading to a side yard. Easy-care grasses and flowers give year-round beauty, without needing to be groomed.

While the large, woody backyard looks beautiful from a distance, up close, the bugs and overgrown bushes keep a pair of new homeowners and their dog out of the backyard. They want to be able to entertain and relax in their shady yard, but the small deck and unkempt woodlands are impractical for parties of any size. Chris uses a backhoe, chainsaw and inventive new plantings and hard-scape to create a yard that seems to grow right out of nature, but is inviting and relaxing as well. Chris extends the deck and adds stadium steps to create a new dining and cooking area. A flagstone patio becomes a natural floor for an outdoor living room. A waterfall surrounded by river rock looks as if it was created by nature. And a huge swinging daybed is tucked into the yard's far corner under a pergola. The frisky dog isn't forgotten as he gets his own grassy enclosure as well. New plantings are the unsung heros of this yard, however. Chris uses insect-repellent flowers and herbs to help keep spiders and bugs back in the woods and away from the homeowners new outdoor retreat.

New parents Sean and Sara were excited to become homeowners and spent all their energy redecorating. But when baby Leah came along, they realize their unkempt, sloping backyard was an eyesore that needed to be fixed. Although the deck is large and relatively new, no one wants to step off the deck into a rutted yard with overgrown grass and a destination point that looks straight into a neighbor's yard. They ask Chris to design a yard with a play area for Leah and a dining and entertaining area for themselves. Chris and his team level out the yard and create a flagstone patio with an elegant outdoor fire pit. A raised dining room under a pergola gets a clever privacy wall created by antique shutters. A mismatched garage wall is treated with a paint technique that ties the garage to the yard. And Chris re-purposes an old shed and creates a charming playhouse for the toddler. Where the deck used to be the only outdoor space the family used, it is transformed into a stepping off point into their new, private garden.

A family of four is desperate to have an outdoor space as beautiful as their recently-renovated Mediterranian-style home. The home has beautiful french doors that open to a miniature deck with a yard filled with dirt and renovation left-overs. Chris and his team tackle the cleanup and demo first. Then they create design elements that will enhance the home's classic style. They build a huge deck off the French doors that opens to a grass-and-stone tiled yard, a cobalt blue fountain and an oversized gazebo with canvas shade panels that enclose an outdoor living room. Chris also has a beautiful solution an unattractive driveway that edges next to the new backyard space.