Beautiful Home

I have one of the smallest back yards in my neighborhood, but I always get rave reviews from neighbors and visitors to my home because I am very big into back yard landscaping, and you don’t have to put a whole lot of money into it to make your yard into something beautiful.

The lot that my home is on is about a half an acre, but it was divided into two by the previous owner for a garage apartment in the back. He decided to put a privacy fence halfway between my house and the garage apartment, so my back yard is essentially a quarter of the size of most of my neighbors’ yards.

This has been a drawback in some ways. I cannot have a dog, and there is not a whole lot of room for my children to play, but it has also been a blessing in that back yard landscaping is made a whole lot easier because there isn’t as much area to cover.

I started by planting a garden between my fence and sidewalk, which was about a one-foot tract of dirt. I planted flowers in that area, and now it is probably the most colorful area of the entire yard and it makes the yard smell great.

I then made a walkway of pea gravel that curves in a semicircle the length of the back yard and out to the fence that leads to the front yard, through that gate, and out to the front yard where it stops at my driveway. This makes my wife happy, because I don’t track mud into the house when I take the trash out.

The next step for me was one of the very basic elements of back yard landscaping, which was to plant grass. The yard had virtually none when we first moved into the house. Now, the entire back yard is covered with thick Bermuda grass.

I planted some banana trees in one corner and started a little vegetable garden along the opposite fence of the flower garden that I planted, and bought some second hand lawn furniture, including a bench and two tables with umbrellas. I made the only expensive purchase when I bought to fountains for the yard.

If you exclude the fountains, the rest of the back yard landscaping probably cost less than $200, and it looks 10 times better than when I first moved in. It not only looks better, but it is also therapeutic to work hard at something like that and see the end result, especially when your back yard suddenly becomes the envy of all of your neighbors.

Back yard landscaping is something that can be done with any size yard, and I defy anyone to put some kind of effort into it and not feel a certain sense of satisfaction at the end result.

There is something about the attraction of getting into backyard landscaping; for those who have a degree of practice rolling up their sleeves and getting work done themselves, there is nothing quite like the challenge of shaping the great outdoors even if it’s only just out back there. For people who find a good role model in Jessica Simpson constantly saying things like, “Should we find someone to hang that picture?” there’s nothing quite as fearsome as actually getting down and dealing with plants, fertilizer and topsoil. This article is basically for people who love to get things done themselves; but if you want creative control over the way your backyard landscaping project turns out without too much reality getting in the way, you could always draw out the plans yourself, and just get help with the actual implementation.

The atmosphere that the creative use of water can lend your backyard landscaping project can really be priceless. Fountains and custom-made artificial waterfalls are not as expensive as they used to be, and are a very popular option these days. How you decide to place your water body and what shape you will make it can have a profound effect on the final results on your backyard ambience: it can be anything from a natural wild look, to an ethereal fairyland look. You could search for ideas on the Internet; you’d be surprised how magical an addition to your backyard, a water body can be.

It is not hard to create an adorable country feel to your backyard landscaping, with the use of rough-hewn stones and rocks, and maybe a little short mossy wall for good measure. The thing about using rocks in your backyard landscaping project is that rocks have so much character and come in so many different kinds: basalt, granite, slate; it can be surprising how much gravity the dull and deep quality of beautiful stone can bring to your home. One of the best effects possible in a backyard is achieved by using rough-hewn stones for a little wall that runs through the space. A short little wall that you can sit on to be alone with your thoughts is a powerful thing to have.

For those summer nights that you want to entertain your family on, a nice patio in your backyard is quite an addition. A barbecue under the stars with your children balancing on the wall you built, can be one of the most satisfying experiences you could have. Consider a wooden deck with a built-in minibar too.

Using a landscaping software package can be very handy in such a project. Such a program makes your decisions easier; you can see out in front of you the results of all that you planned in your mind, and you can make informed decisions. Landscaping engineers certainly use them, even if they do know how to put it all out on a blueprint. The reason this is so is that a computer program for your landscaping can actually fill in all the gaps; all the little bushes and the saplings you plant, will really not give you an accurate idea of what the final result two years down the line will look like. A software package can ask for information on the kind of plants and trees you will be planning, and can extrapolate from your information to give you the final picture, the big picture. 

Tags: backyard landscaping, landscaping software, landscaping