Did you recently move into a new house with a lovely yet empty backyard? Do you want to take advantage of that space but don’t know what to do yet?
We can help you. Here are three design ideas you can try to beautify your backyard.
Colorful Garden Surrounded by a Well-Manicured Lawn
You can create a small garden with colorful plants or flowers.
Your choices for plants will depend on the weather in your area, but many plants don’t need sunlight and can survive all types of weather.
Here are some examples.
- Mourning widow
This perennial is a popular garden subject that’s also known as the black widow or dusky crane’s bill.
Mourning widows have beautiful, vibrant, violet flowers with pointed petals growing from spring to summer. Although this plant dies in the winter, it regrows every spring.
- Sedum
This succulent is a common, easy-to-grow garden plant.
The color of the sedum’s flowers depends on the species, but you can see yellow, pink, green, red, and even purple sedums.
Sedums are low-maintenance plants that don’t require water often. You can water them every seven to ten days, and they’ll be fine. Sedums are also resistant to droughts, so they’re perfect plants if you live in an area with extensive periods of drought.
- Pink dianthus
This flowering plant is another favorite among gardeners because of its beautiful pink flowers and low maintenance requirements.
The pink dianthus is an ideal potted plant, making it the perfect addition to your garden.
This plant is also easy to grow and only needs watering once or twice a week, depending on the heat level in your area. The flowers thrive in sunlight and bloom year-round in warm climates, so they’re an excellent choice for your garden if you live in a sunny location.
Make the colors in your garden pop by properly manicuring the surrounding lawn.
Your lawn mowing frequency depends on your grass’s growth speed, but most lawn-care experts advise you to mow your lawn once weekly from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. to give the grass time to heal before nightfall.
Perform proper maintenance on your lawn mower to ensure it cuts grass perfectly each time. Check it regularly, change the oil, and replace easily worn parts with high-quality Craftsman lawn mower parts. Using high-quality parts will help prolong the life of your trusty garden tool, letting you use it for 10 years or longer.
Contemporary Backyard Pool
Do you have a flat, easily accessible backyard? Consider installing a nice pool that’ll allow you to cool off on hot summer days.
However, installing a pool in your backyard isn’t as easy as it seems, and there are many factors you must consider. Here are some questions to ask yourself if you want to install a pool in your backyard.
1. How will you use your pool?
If you have kids, you’ll want a relatively shallow and easily accessible pool to make it safe for children to swim in. On the other hand, if you’re going to use the pool for pool parties with other adults, you can make the pool deeper, more complex, and more visually appealing.
2. How big is my yard?
You must carefully consider the size of your pool, especially if you plan on adding other design elements to your yard, like a garden, deck, or dining area.
It would be unwise to make your pool so large that it’s hard to walk around your backyard, let alone add other elements.
Your yard’s size will also affect the shape of the pool. A square or rectangular swimming pool is ideal for smaller yards because it lets you maximize your yard space. Meanwhile, circular or “figure-eight” pools are suitable only for yards with more space.
3. How do I protect my pool?
Asking this question is critical, especially if you live in an area with harsh winters.
Your pool must have a strong foundation that can withstand the cold without cracking. It must also have a heavy-duty pool cover to protect it from ice and other elements entering your pool in the winter.
If there are kids in your neighborhood, it would also be wise to build a high fence surrounding your pool to prevent children from entering your yard, falling into your pool, and drowning.
All these questions will affect the price of your pool, so asking them is crucial because doing so allows you to set the proper budget.
Spacious Al Fresco Dining Area
You can’t go wrong with a comfortable and relaxing dining area in your backyard. You can use an al fresco dining space in a multitude of situations, including:
- If you have a big family with several children and want to enjoy weekend meals outside
- If you and your significant other don’t have kids and like hosting parties with your friends
- If you’re an entrepreneur and want to entertain potential clients
Follow these tips to maximize your outdoor dining area.
4. Choose the sunniest space in your backyard
Your dining area should be in the space that gets the most sunlight.
You can quickly determine which area it is by going to your backyard at sunrise and noting the sunlight and shade levels in every area. Repeat the process every hour or so.
Generally, areas facing the south will have more sunlight, while those facing the north will have less sunlight.
5. Buy durable dining furniture
In an outdoor setup, your dining furniture will be more exposed to the weather and other elements. Thus, it would be best if you chose high-quality, weather-resistant dining furniture.
Aluminum furniture is one of the safest choices because aluminum is resistant to corrosion, weather elements, fading or discoloration, and cracking.
Natural wood (e.g., teak, walnut, oak, mahogany) tables and chairs also make excellent dining furniture, provided the manufacturer properly waterproofs them.
6. Add artificial outdoor lighting
Attractive outdoor lighting can amplify the ambiance of your backyard dining space. Adding adequate lighting will also allow you to use your space at night, letting you have outdoor family dinners or evening parties with friends.
Enhance Your Backyard
The beauty of having a backyard is that you don’t have to limit yourself to the ideas above. The ideas in this article are just the most common and effective ways of enhancing your backyard. They are also easy to add to almost any outdoor space, as long as you remember our advice.
You can add many other things to your backyard—it just depends on the size of your yard, the weather in your area, and your budget.
