How to Landscape A Back Yard To Look Good

This post about how to landscape your back yard to look good, is intended to give you some basic ideas as how to implement a project that will be not only beautiful and attractive, but also practical.

If you are considering very seriously to achieve a nice landscape that will provide comfort, relaxation, beauty and convenience, start by stepping outside from your house in the back yard. Since you have this new idea in mind, you are about to look to the whole situation with a surveying eye, with a different perspective, not just to take some fresh air, but like one who is about to start doing something.

Look at the present situation of the yard, and just try to imagine what kind of elements it needs to make a drastic change in the whole picture.

To bring these new ideas and elements to life, dot them down on a sheet of paper or a note pad. If your back yard is on a slope, locate an area where you might want to install a retaining wall, for a nice little terrace, to place a table with a few chairs. You might also want to consider installing some steps to that area for easy access as well as appearance.

Weather the yard is in a slope or flat, it does not matter, except that it requires a different approach. But what you want to consider first, is to divide the yard in spaces, for practicality and other considerations such as beauty, convenience, entertainment, socializing, playing, relaxing, resting, etc.

It does not have to be too polished, but appealing enough for entertainment, with a friendly atmosphere and a friendly environment.

After you divide the back yard in separate sections, consider some essential elements that will make it work, and looks good to the eye of the beholder. No matter in what part of the property you are, it should look great from every angle, as well as practical.

Consider to install a brick patio, surrounded by your preferred shrubs and blooming flowers. Add some nice clay pottery of different sizes and shapes for accent and focal points around your patio. Set on the brick area some nice garden and patio furniture, for comfortable seating and dining area. From here install some stepping stones that lead to a gazebo, or a pavilion, to relax in the shade, in an intimate space.

As we go along, you will realize how nicely is your back yard landscape taking place. It is coming to life as we continue to add some essential elements. It will be awesome as we add and complete each new element.

Find a nice sunny area and plant a beautiful vegetable garden, and one for a flower garden of your choice. If you have children it will provide a great resource of educational activities, to cultivate in them the beauty of nature and recreation in the outdoors. It is healthy, beneficial, and it also builds character and a love for the environment. Gardening is wonderful.

We should never neglect to assign a special area for the children to play in safety, and give them the liberty to be in their own little playing universe. You can install a swing set, a sand box, slides, etc.

If you have a place to build a deck, with some nice benches on it, or garden furniture, surrounded with shrubs and small trees, will create a beautiful element as a main focal point in the yard. A place to entertain your guests and friends with some delicious barbecue, and other fine foods and drinks.

Divide the spaces with some trellises, hedges, retaining walls, small trees, for a sense of intimacy or delimitation of use. Like in your home, the same way as the rooms are divided, except that in the yard are wider and in the open air. Your celling is the sky, your walls are made of live plants, or a trellis, or a chain-link-fence, or a line of small trees, etc.

Another area of relaxing could be a spa, hot-tub, swimming pool.

Consider planting along the fence some ornamental trees, like Crape Myrtles, Althea the Rose of Sharon, and other blooming trees, that will offer besides the beautiful blooms, the sense of enclosure, of delimitation of your property, your outdoor space.

For a more dramatic effect of soothing and appealing atmosphere consider installing some low voltage lighting. This will create an astonishing view of the whole picture at night. Strategically placed to bring out some focal points, and gives the impression of a fairy land at night.

Place some benches on the side of a walkway, and have some spot light point to some garden statue, for an even greater impression.

After you have pretty much implemented all the elements so that each will serve its purpose, you can see that how to landscape a back yard to look good, was not really that hard, was it? By taking one step at a time, and with a careful planing, it can surely be easily achieved.

Until next time,

Happy gardening!

Mike Borlovan