The Backyard Envy trio is headed to Fire Island for the season 2 finale. James DeSantis, Melissa Brasier, and Garrett Magee face some of their biggest challenges yet with their latest job, and the trip is memorable in more ways than one. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with the trio about why Fire Island was the perfect place to end the season.
“Fire Island is like our second home I feel like,” Garrett told HollywoodLife. “It’s where we go to vacation. It’s where a lot of our friends have houses. We’ve done a couple projects out there, so to be able to do a project on the TV show was actually really exciting for us. We also pull a lot of our inspiration from Fire Island, as far as the type of pine and the grasses we put into a lot of our landscaping in the city. So for us to go out there, it was really exciting. But there were definitely challenges with dealing with deer trying to eat all of our plants.”
Garrett will also be proposing to his longtime love, Andrew, on Fire Island. He shared some sweet details behind his proposal. “Fire Island was where we first met,” Garrett gushed. “It seemed like the perfect place to propose. I really wanted to set up a really romantic setting for us, so I took inspiration from The Bachelor, which is one of our favorite shows. I was very, very, very nervous to do it, especially on the TV show. He does say yes, but he was definitely surprised and shocked by the whole thing. But I think it turned out really cute. I can’t wait to see it on the show.”
Over the course of season 2, tension built between James and his co-stars. James has been clear that he wants to focus on the firm’s expansion plans and not be on-site as much. At one point, James insinuates he may want to take a break from the group. James explained some of the drama and how he, Garrett and Mel are doing today.
“It’s funny arguing about it a year later because we’re just at a different place,” James told HollywoodLife. “I think it’s coming across worse than it actually is or actually was at the time. It’s hard to film a TV show because there’s so much work coming in, and you want to expand and you want to grow, but then you’re also making the show. You always have to be on our set, which is the job site. So, for me, it was very hard every day to have to go and plant when I wanted to be doing other work. I think that nobody there understood that but there are moments where it comes across that they’re the most understanding business partners. Spoiler alert, we opened an office here [in LA], and they’ve been nothing but supportive of helping with that.”
The show hasn’t been renewed for season 3 just yet, but Mel revealed that she’d like to see some big changes in a potential third season. “We hope to film in LA, if it’s our choice,” Mel said. “But I’m not sure because it’s really a docuseries where they follow our real life. I think it would depend on when would we be filming and what we’re actually doing in our business life. But it’s possible that we film in both cities and show how each city runs similarly, differently, and what those challenges are. It all depends on when we can figure out how to film again, safely.” The Backyard Envy finale will air Sept. 22 at 10 p.m. on Bravo.