Designing for Views: How to Frame Mountains, Water, and Sunsets in Your Idaho Yard

You’ll often hear Kim Rubert say, “Nature does it best,” when she talks about her work as a landscape designer in Idaho Falls.

She knows it’s hard to beat a stunning mountain view, a field of wildflowers in bloom, a meandering river and a fiery sunset.

If you’re lucky enough to gaze at nature’s beauty from your Idaho home, her job is to help you enjoy it even more.

Jump to Section

• First Up: Take It All In
• Hardscaping in Backyard Landscape Design
• Borrowing Colors from Nature
• The Right Plants for Landscape Views and Sightlines
• Year-Round Landscaping for Four-Season Views
• Strategic Lighting Extends Your Evening View
• Frequently Asked Questions About Landscape Views and Sightlines
• Ready for Backyard Landscape Design that Celebrates Your View? Trust Outback

“The landscaping that we do should enhance the view, not detract,” says Rubert, a longtime designer at Outback Landscape.

What landscaping works best for properties with scenic views? Hardscape patios positioned to enjoy the view. Winding paths that lead your eye to the scenery. Graceful ornamental grasses in greens, blues and gold tones that complement the natural surroundings. Drifts of wildflowers that enhance the natural beauty.

Rubert shares her favorite strategies for landscape views and sightlines.

First Up: Take It All In

“When we’re on site, it’s really important to just observe from different locations what the views are that we'd like to protect,” Rubert says.

She strolls around the property before making a decision, identifying the best viewing angles. And that includes your views from inside, too.

“Views from windows are really important,” Rubert says. “Then, as we’re designing, we’ll take those viewpoints into consideration and frame them with trees, plantings, and hardscaping.”

But less is often more.

“East Idaho and Wyoming already have incredible bones — the terrain, open sky — and we don't want to compete, but rather enhance,” she says. “I’ve always been of the opinion that nature does it best.”

Rubert might not use as many plants on a property with a mountain view as she would in an English cottage garden in the city.

And it’s not just the views that are important, she says, but how the homeowner wants to enjoy them. While soaking in a hot tub? Gathered around a fire pit? While sizzling up shrimp fajitas in an outdoor kitchen?

Before she sits down to design Idaho outdoor living spaces, Rubert does a lot of homework.

“Planning and consideration are crucial,” she says.

Hardscaping in Backyard Landscape Design

When you have a spectacular view, you need a comfortable place to relax and enjoy it.

How do you create outdoor living spaces around natural scenery?

A perfectly placed patio can become your go-to outdoor space. You’ll end up living out there, from morning coffee to backyard yoga to fresh-air dinners to parties with the fireflies.

“Every hardscape element needs to have a relationship with the view, not just the house,” Rubert says. “We orient patios and seating areas so the best view is directly in front of you when you're relaxed and seated.”

Some hardscape elements are easier than others when you’re creating a luxury backyard design with a great view, Rubert says.

People love pergolas, but designing around a stunning view can be a challenge, she says.

“Pergolas are tricky because vertical posts and overhead beams can create a cluttered foreground if you're not careful,” Rubert says. “We often use open-beam designs or position pergolas to one side so the central view remains completely unobstructed.”

Here in Idaho, we love fire pits. Our chilly fall and winter temperatures are perfect for gathering around warm, flickering flames.

“Fire pits we almost always center on the view,” Rubert says. That way, you can happily gaze at the flickering flames and see the stunning view beyond.

Ponder a path.

“Pathways are actually a great tool,” Rubert says. “A gently curving path can draw the eye outward and lead it right toward a scenic horizon.”

Borrowing Colors from Nature

Color palettes are important in Idaho Falls backyard landscape design, Rubert says.

Idaho outdoor living spaces should feature plants in hues that complement and extend the natural surroundings.

“If we’re going for a more natural look and want to blend into the wild landscape, we use sage greens, silver blues, and golden tones of ornamental grasses,” she says. “They feel like an extension of the Idaho landscape. This helps the landscape feel cohesive and simply beautiful.”

Ornamental grasses that sway in the wind are great for recreating a natural, windswept mountain meadow.

A few of Rubert’s favorites:

Blue Oat Grass

This blue-hued ornamental grass is a stunner all summer, with its flowers tipped with golden, oat-like seed heads. But it keeps its attractive light brown fall color right through the winter.

Karl Foerster Grass

This award-winning, four-season grass creates a stunning effect with feathery plumes in summer that turn golden in fall. The tan seed heads dry out and last through winter.

Little Bluestem

This native grass is prized for its blue-green leaves, which offer attractive color all season long. In fall, it turns a striking reddish-bronze, with tufted seed heads.

Bonus: it’s a host plant for several Idaho butterflies.

Rubert loves the sturdy quality of ornamental grasses. They add intriguing texture, movement, and a softness to Idaho landscaping, no matter your view. And when winter moves in, and most plants hang it up for the winter, many ornamental grasses hang in there, with pretty dried seed heads that offer captivating winter interest and sturdy stems that hold up to piling Idaho snow.

The Right Plants for Landscape Views and Sightlines

Rubert chooses plants for the specific view she’s trying to enhance, whether it’s a scenic river, stunning mountains or golden sunsets.

“It really all depends on the view,” Rubert says.

But she shares a few of her favorite plants for framing views in Idaho outdoor living spaces:

Swedish Aspen

This Idaho Aspen is hardy and offers pretty fall color. Its rounded leaves rustle in the breeze, adding a soothing sound while you enjoy your view.

Aspen groves are common in the Idaho landscape, so adding them helps your property blend in with the natural surroundings, Rubert says.

Spruce

Rubert likes spruce and other evergreens for framing views, but they also serve another purpose: offering a nice winter framework when everything else dies back.

While the towering Colorado Spruce might overwhelm a view, semi-dwarf varieties like ‘Baby Blue Eyes’ spruce can work nicely to help enhance a view, while adding a pretty silvery-blue hue to the landscape that isn't found on many other evergreens.

Dogwood

Rubert loves Ivory Halo Dogwood, a dwarf variety prized for its brilliant red winter stems, pretty variegated foliage, and compact size.

Flowering Perennials

A bounty of pretty perennials thrives here in Idaho, and Rubert loves using them in mountain view landscaping.

Their natural colors blend in with the surroundings, and most don’t grow tall enough to block a precious view.

“Some of these plants are wildflowers, too,” Rubert says, “and are so beautiful in our landscape.”

A few perennials she uses to enhance a beautiful view:

• Blanketflower
• Lupine
• Salvia
• Daisy
• Columbine
• Lavender
• Russian Sage
• Silver Mound
• Sunflower
• Cosmos

Year-Round Landscaping for Four-Season Views

If you want your Rexburg or Pocatello landscaping to work hard year-round to enhance your view, it should be designed with Idaho winters in mind.

That means layering planting beds with evergreens that provide year-round color and texture.

It means leaving the dried seed heads and fluffy plumes of your ornamental grasses for winter interest. Don’t cut them back until spring.

Include trees and shrubs with bright fruits and berries that offer beauty through the winter.

Strategic Lighting Extends Your Evening View

You don’t have to give up your view when the sun sets. In fact, the sunset might be your view.

But strategic lighting is key to enhancing your natural surroundings without washing them out or adding distracting glare. Idaho Falls landscape designers keep a few key lighting strategies in mind:

• Use soft path lighting to maintain safe navigation without creating glare that blocks your night view.
• Use downward-facing lights to preserve the dark night sky and distant views after sunset.
• Use glare guards that shield your bulbs so the light points down and away from your line of sight.

Frequently Asked Questions About Landscape Views and Sightlines

Q: How can landscape design improve sunset views?

A: Use a few key strategies:

• Make sure no overgrown tree branches or large shrubs block the western horizon.
• Replace solid fences that block the view with open-slat designs or transparent panels.
• Create a hardscape path to guide the eyes and feet to the sunset view
• Use climbing vines on trellises or arbors to create a natural picture frame around the setting sun.

Q: What plants work best without blocking a view?

A: Several plants can work well with a stunning view:

• Open-canopy trees that have airy branches and thin trunks.
• Ornamental grasses that create a soft boundary and that sway in the breeze
• Low-growing perennials and groundcovers.

Layering plants is a great strategy to design without blocking beautiful views. Layer graceful grasses with small ornamental trees or upright evergreens; mid-size shrubs; perennials; and low-growing ground covers.

Q: Can landscaping increase a home's property value when it has a view?

A: Absolutely. Instead of competing with a beautiful natural view, skilled, intentional landscaping serves as a beautiful frame, enhancing it. It creates a seamless transition between the property and the scenery, making the overall property much more appealing to buyers.

Ready for Backyard Landscape Design that Celebrates Your View? Trust Outback

It all starts with a skilled, creative Idaho Falls landscape designer who will help you preserve your stunning views and help you live your best outdoor life while enjoying them.

Outback offers expert landscape design, construction, maintenance, irrigation and lighting services to enhance any property, regardless of your view.

We install beautiful, functional landscapes and stay with you for the long haul, caring for your property through all four seasons.

We serve residential and commercial properties in Idaho Falls, Rexburg and Pocatello, Idaho; Bonneville, Madison and Bannock counties and Jackson, WY.

Call us at 208-656-3220 or schedule a no-obligation meeting with a member of our team. We can’t wait to hear from you.