No matter where you live, there’s nothing better than relaxing outdoors on a warm summer night watching your backyard landscaping ideas come to life.
Regrettably, re-landscaping your entire backyard in a single growing season may be exhausting, expensive, and time-consuming.
Here is an easy answer: Your backyard can be divided into “rooms,” and one room can be renovated annually. If you’re on a tight budget, this is extremely beneficial. Spending as much time and money as you can on one project will yield considerably better results than attempting to renovate the entire backyard at once for the same budget.
Even though you are only landscaping one area of the yard at a time, you still require a comprehensive strategy. Sketch the permanent features of your property, such as the house, outbuildings, deck, and trees, on graph paper.
Additionally, this is a good time to decide which current trees and bushes won’t be included in the new landscaping.
Create duplicates of your sketch and try with various layouts. Include inspiration from publications you enjoy or gardens you’ve visited.
If you host frequent cook outs you’ll probably want to keep the yard open and plant along the borders. If you don’t need the space, you could create real drama with an island bed, walkways, solar lighting and cutouts for comfortable furniture to relax on.
Here are some Backyard Landscaping ideas you’ll dig:
Screening with Plants
If your yard is unfenced, you might want to think about planting a row of bushes like hawthorn, juniper, arborvitae, or a combination of these to give privacy and serve as a backdrop for future flower beds. A well-placed evergreen screen will also act as a windbreak from blustery winter winds and snowdrifts.
Planning a Border Flower Bed
The most challenging aspect of border design is selecting flowers that contrast one another in height and color. The list of perennials I offer here is for a bed that is six feet broad and mostly sunny. In this context, “wide” refers to the area outside of the plant screen or fence rather than the length of the bed.
For each type of bloom, use 3 or 5 plants, and space them 16 to 18 inches apart. Allow 20 to 22 inches between each plant group. It is more visually pleasing to plant an odd number of plants than an even amount.
Make sure there is enough room for access at the back of the bed. Additionally, this will prevent the plants in the back from being denied vital air and light.
Here are some ideas I have for perennial borders. With the first flowers blooming in April and the last in October, they were chosen to provide a lengthy display.
Tall plants for the back row: SEDUM ‘Autumn Joy’; RUDBECKIA Goldsturm; PHLOX White; IRIS light blue or yellow; VERONICA Blue; SOLIDAGO ‘Golden Shower’; and HOSTA fortunei ‘Picta’.
Shorter plants for the front row: GERANIUM grandiflorum; POTENTILLA ‘Firedance’; HUECHERA Pink; ASTER Dwarf Blue; SEDUM Dragons Blood; ACHILLEA ‘Moonshine’; and ERIGERON ‘Prosperity’.
Naturally, not every climate will be ideal for these plants. The Comfortable Lazy Garden is a helpful book to choose plants native to your temperature zone. It’s also a great resource for novice gardeners.
Island Bed
As the name suggests, an island bed is situated in the centre of the yard and is encircled by a sea of grass. Depending on your imagination and the available area, it can take on different shapes and sizes. Calculate the height of the plants by measuring them from the center to the edges.
Preplanned Gardens
I recognize that for novice gardeners, all of this Latin lingo can be intimidating; I know it was for me. To eliminate all the guesswork involved in plant selection and placement, Direct Gardening offers a variety of preplanned gardens if you’d prefer a ready-made solution.
Water Feature
Imagine the reflective beauty of a pond or the gentle splashing of a man made waterfall. How about a 100 foot high waterslide? Maybe next year.
Do Your Yard a Favor
Visit a real garden center before purchasing any plants to seek guidance on drainage and soil preparation. Bring a copy of your plan, a sample of the soil, and an extra credit card in case you decide to implement your backyard landscaping ideas sooner rather than later.