Outdoor Living: Make Your Backyard the Place to Be

Whether you are gathering friends together for a summer barbecue or huddling around a bonfire with s’mores in the winter, the backyard can be the spot to make great memories and share special moments. Make your own backyard do all this and more for you and your loved ones by giving it the perfect elements of decor, design, and landscaping.

With the assistance of these elements, your home’s backyard will quickly become the favorite hangout spot for you and all of your family and friends. Take the necessary steps to help your outdoor living space live up to its full potential.

Freshen up your landscaping.

• Clean up your flowerbeds with neat edges and fresh pine straw or mulch. Giving your flowerbeds in the backyard distinctive shapes and boundaries will make them pop against the backdrop of the lawn and add to the overall aesthetic.

• Attend to your perennials and add some new blooms. Maintain the livelihood of your perennials by pruning when necessary and keeping their domain free of pests. You want to ensure they come back year after year — all as a result of just having to plant the bulbs one time! Also, brighten up your yard with some new floral additions. Plant flowers in multiple colors to set an attention-grabbing scene or within one color palette for a pretty, more uniform and monochromatic look.

• Tidy up your trees and shrubs. Avoid allowing your trees and shrubs to take over your outdoor living space. They should make a positive contribution to the space, not detract from its look or its welcoming ambience. Trim hedges and any low-hanging tree branches to make them neat, rather than overbearing and looking unkempt.

Use your garden areas to bring your backyard to life.

• Mix pops of color with classic greens. Highlight the flora of your outdoor living space by giving it some color along with its greenery.

• Combine different plant textures and heights. Take the task of making your garden areas more interesting even a step further than just adding color. Add various plant textures and heights to the array as well.

• Plant in different areas of the yard rather than in just one space. Have anyone who visits your home’s backyard busy taking in the beauty of your entire backyard rather than just one isolated spot. Don’t simply stick all of your plants and flowers in one little flower bed or in one corner of the yard. Incorporate them throughout the outdoor area! Have people “taking it all in” once they step foot out back of your home.

Get creative and have fun!

• Think of new ways to display your potted plants. Who says your flower pots have to remain firmly planted on solid ground? (Because they certainly do not!) Get creative and have fun with your plant displays. You can create your own hanging garden from a tree, or your arbor, or the edge of your home’s roof. You could plant blooms in a window box and hang it on the outside of one of your home’s rear-facing windows. Think outside the box when it comes to adding florals to your outdoor living space.

• Make mosaic flower pots or a mosaic bird bath. A simple and inexpensive way to add a touch of texture and intrigue to the decor items in your backyard is by giving them a mosaic makeover. Take pieces of old dishware or bottles that are lying around your home taking up space and incorporate them into the surface of flower pots, a bird bath, or even stepping stones to create a walkway wherever you so choose. You can put the pieces all over the item, or you could put them together into some type of design or pattern.  

Freshen up your landscaping and give your backyard some personality with your choice of decor. It will quickly become the beautiful, welcoming oasis of your home and the spot where everyone wants to come gather.