10 Ways to Know If You’re a Master Backyarder, Says The TurfMutt Foundation

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – According to the TurfMutt Foundation, which advocates for the care and use of our backyards, community parks, and other green spaces around us, 2023 is the year of the master backyarder. “Backyarding” is the act of taking activities normally done indoors to the great outdoors such as our yards and parks. Today, people are elevating their outdoor life to master backyarder status.

“For Master Backyarders, living and working outdoors is an integral part of everyday life,” explains Kris Kiser, president & CEO of the TurfMutt Foundation. “Time to relax? They go outside. Have a web call? They set up their laptop on their deck or patio. Have a party to throw? They do it in their backyard.”

So how do you know if you are a Master Backyarder? The TurfMutt Foundation says to ask yourself these questions:

• Do you use your yard for recreation, like parties and barbeques?
• Do you take work outside, like a laptop on a deck or a study session under a shade tree?
• Have you created an outdoor fun zone in your backyard for your kids and pets?
• Do you use your yard as a place to be still and de-stress?
• Have you staged a “staycation” for your family in your own backyard?
• Do you recognize your backyard as an urban habitat that is an important part of the connected ecosystem?
• Do you plant with pollinators and other backyard wildlife in mind?
• Have you added a mix of trees, shrubs, grass and flowering plants to your yard, putting the right plant in the right place?
• Have you used your backyard or community park as a living science lab to teach kids hands-on STEM lessons?
• Are you an outdoor evangelist who shares with friends and family about the benefits of getting outside, starting in your own backyard

If you answered yes to the majority of the questions above, congratulations! You are mastering outdoor life.

“Master backyarders are inspirational, and we should all strive to level up our outdoor living to this status,” Kiser concludes. “This spring is the perfect time to take the next step to living life more outdoors.”

For more information, sign up for Mutt Mail, a monthly e-newsletter with backyarding tips and all the news from the TurfMutt Foundation here. To learn more about creating the yard of your dreams, visit TurfMutt.com. Look for Mulligan the TurfMutt on the CBS Lucky Dog television show. Here is a link to the International Backyarding Fact Book, to learn why spending time in our yards and community parks is good for us…and the planet.

About the TurfMutt Foundation
TurfMutt was created by the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute’s (OPEI) TurfMutt Foundation and has reached more than 70 million children, educators and families since 2009. Championed by Foundation spokesdog, Mulligan the TurfMutt, and through education partners such as Weekly Reader, Discovery Education and Scholastic, TurfMutt has taught students and teachers how to “save the planet, one yard at a time.” Today, TurfMutt is an official USGBC® Education Partner and part of their global LEARNING LAB. TurfMutt has been an education resource at the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Green Apple, the Center for Green Schools, the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, the National Energy Education Development (NEED) project, Climate Change Live, Petfinder and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2017, the TurfMutt animated video series won the coveted Cynopsis Kids Imagination Award for Best Interstitial Series. TurfMutt’s personal, home habitat was featured in the 2017-2020 Wildlife Habitat Council calendars. More information at www.TurfMutt.com.