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By Dylan Roche
Photography by David Burroughs
A relaxing retreat with sparkling waterfalls and tropical foliage sounds like an environment that would require vacation travel. But in the case of this landscape design by Jeff Crandell of Scapes, Inc., all it requires is stepping out into the backyard of an Anne Arundel County home. This outdoor space, with its freeform pool, expansive patio, and thoughtful landscape, offers a place perfect for both solitude and entertainment.
“The vision was to create a space where you come home from work, and maybe you’re having friends over, and you just kind of disconnect from the real world and enjoy your own little resort,” Crandell explains. “You can just get away from the stress of the real world.”
When the home was originally built, all it had in the backyard was a patio. This at-home resort evolved over several years, feature by feature, from the pool to the outdoor fireplace.
The pool serves as the outdoor living space’s focal point. The pebble finish along its floor gives it a more natural appearance than typical white plaster and gives the pool a bluish tint by day, almost as if it were a natural body of water. “We wanted to make it look as natural as possible, along with everything else we’re trying to accomplish with the rocks and the waterfall,” Crandell says, referring to the formation of boulders and natural stone along one side of the pool from which flow a waterfall and—perhaps more importantly, especially for the children—a waterslide.
The natural look of the lagoon-like pool is further accentuated by the lush greenery surrounding it, some of which must be brought in from warmer climates every year. “Most of the boxwoods keep their leaves—they’re evergreen,” Crandell explains. “And you’ve got some hydrangeas, some Knock Out roses, and some perennial stuff that comes back every year. But then you’ve got the palm trees, the sweet potato vines that cascade over the rocks, and the hibiscus as well. That stuff goes away, so you have to bring it in from Florida in the spring.”
Although the pool deck gets plenty of sun exposure, Crandell consciously designed it with travertine, a visually appealing stonework that remains cool underfoot even on hot days, making it as practical as it is aesthetic. “If you have an August day and it’s 100 degrees out, you don’t have to worry about your feet burning,” he says. “If you did a flagstone material or paver, they would get hot. The travertine doesn’t, which is a huge selling point.”
Then, when the sun goes down and night sets in, the outdoor space can still accommodate a party thanks to the low-voltage LED lighting system integrated throughout to create a warm and inviting ambiance in the evening.
“The biggest thing with the lighting is consistency—you don’t want any dark spots anywhere, so you want to make sure you have as much consistent lighting around the whole outdoor area as possible,” Crandell says. Many of the lights are tucked away in the plant materials, hidden from view until they turn on, illuminating the architecture and the landscaping in ways that create focal points in the evening dusk. “Then you can sit back, having a cocktail or whatever, and everything is lit up, and it creates a nice ambiance,” Crandell says.
Whether day or night, in hot weather or mild, the outdoor space proves that a backyard can be whatever you want it to be with the right landscape design—even a tropical escape from reality.
LANDSCAPING, HARDSCAPING, POOL, AND LIGHTING: Jeff Crandell, Scapes, Inc.
© Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 16, No. 2 2025