Please enjoy this guest blog written by our friends at biota Landscapes.
There's a particular kind of longing after a long winter: a craving for fresh air, warm sun on your face, and the sound of birds instead of furnaces. If you live in the Midwest, you know it well. Our winters are long, our springs are brief, and our summers feel like they're constantly racing against the calendar. That's exactly why our outdoor spaces deserve to feel less like an afterthought and more like an extension of the home itself.
At biota Landscapes, we believe great design doesn't stop at the back door. And we're excited to be sharing this space with our friends at Loll Designs, a Duluth-based outdoor furniture maker whose values around durability, materials, and sustainability line up closely with biota's. Together, we're exploring what it really means to create an outdoor space that feels seamless, intentional, and built for year-round living.
Why Indoor-Outdoor Living Matters More Here, Not Less
It's tempting to think that indoor-outdoor living is a concept best suited to places like California, where the weather cooperates more generously, but that line of thinking misses something important: the more limited your outdoor season, the more that season matters.
When the first warm days hit, we all want to be outside. A well-designed outdoor space extends the season on both ends. A fire pit, a screened porch, a windbreak of evergreens, or simply a sheltered seating nook can turn a 150-day outdoor season into year-round enjoyment.
There's also a compelling wellness case for outdoor living. Research shows that spending even 20 minutes outside can improve mood and reduce stress, with time in nature linked to better mental health, higher self-esteem, and lower anxiety. Gardening, walking, and simply spending time in green spaces offer some of the greatest benefits.
Exploring the Four Key Elements of Outdoor Living
1. Outdoor Rooms: Designing Spaces You'll Actually Use
The most successful landscapes are organized into "rooms," each with its own purpose. A dining area near the kitchen door for easy meals outside. A lounge space tucked into greenery for quiet mornings. A gathering spot built around a fire feature for cool evenings. When each zone is designed with intention, the whole yard starts to function like an extension of the house itself rather than one undefined patch of grass.
Imagine arriving at a friend's home on a warm summer evening. Dinner is set beneath a pergola softened by climbing vines, with layered plantings creating a sense of enclosure and intimacy. Guests linger around the table long after the meal ends, moving effortlessly between the kitchen and garden. Anchored by the Loll Designs Here and There Dining collection, the space feels less like a patio and more like an outdoor dining room.
2. Furniture: Built for Real Use, Not Just An Aesthetic
This is where the conversation about fast furniture becomes relevant, and where biota Landscapes values and Loll Designs overlap most directly. Outdoor furniture takes a beating, from UV exposure, temperature swings from -20°F to 95°F, humidity, and snow load and cheap furniture simply can't hold up. Resulting in it often ending up in a landfill well before its time. This is part of why biota Landscapes loves Loll. Their furniture is made from 100% recyclable HDPE and is designed to withstand years of outdoor living in all weather.
Picture an outdoor retreat framed by ornamental grasses and flowering perennials. A bluestone path winds through the landscape, leading to a sunny terrace where a pair of Tall Lollygagger Chaises invite you to spend an afternoon reading, napping, or simply enjoying the view. The furniture isn't just there to look good. It's there to be lived in.
3. Materials: Designed to Stand the Test of Time, Not Wear Out
Hardscape materials set the tone for an outdoor space and, like furniture, should be chosen with longevity and texture in mind. Natural stone, permeable pavers, and warm-toned woods age gracefully, developing character rather than visibly deteriorating. In our own design work, we lean heavily into permeable paving and rain garden systems, not just for aesthetics, but for performance. Permeable surfaces reduce runoff, recharge groundwater, and help manage Minnesota's intense spring melt and summer storms. They also perform well through freeze-thaw cycles, helping reduce standing water and supporting the long-term durability of the landscape.
4. Planting Strategy: Living Systems That Get Better With Age
A planting plan shouldn't be static. At biota, we design with what we call green mulch, dense living groundcover systems that suppress weeds, retain moisture, and reduce the need for traditional mulch refreshes. Paired with native and site-appropriate plant selections, these systems support biodiversity while requiring fewer resources over time. The result is a landscape that doesn't peak on installation day and decline from there. It matures. Plantings fill in, root systems establish, and the space becomes more textured, more private, and more alive each season.
Imagine stepping outside on a quiet morning with a cup of coffee. Pollinators move through the garden, ornamental grasses sway in the breeze, and layered plantings create a sense of privacy from the outside world. Settled into a Loll Fredricksonn Club chair tucked within the landscape, you're not simply looking at nature. You're immersed in it.
Two Companies, One Set of Values
Both biota and Loll were built around the idea that sustainability and good design aren't competing priorities. They're the same priority, viewed from different angles.
Biota Landscapes recently became the Midwest's first Certified B Corp™ in the landscape industry, a third-party-verified commitment to balancing environmental impact, worker wellbeing, and community investment alongside business success. Our headquarters runs on solar power generated on site, our maintenance fleet is battery-powered, and our planting strategies are built around regenerative, biodiversity-supporting design.
Loll Designs has spent two decades proving that "maintenance-free", "made from 100% recyclable HDPE", and "genuinely beautiful" can all describe the same piece of outdoor furniture. Manufactured in Duluth, holding a TRUE Gold zero-waste certification, and built using Cradle to Cradle-certified materials, Loll Designs furniture is designed for the same kind of longevity that biota brings to landscape design.
When these two philosophies come together in a single outdoor space, the result is something that feels less like "landscaping" and more like an actual room, one that happens to be outside, built to last, and designed to make you want to be in it.
Curious what this could look like for your own backyard? Explore biota's projects, or browse the Lollygagger Collection, where 1% of every sale supports environmental causes.
*From the folks of Loll, we want to give a thank you to our friends at biota Landscapes for sharing some of their knowledge when it comes to designing outdoor spaces that feel like a natural extension of your home.
