If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

A backyard garden can be a very pleasant place to spend a sunny morning or afternoon, a place to entertain friends and family, and a showcase of the plants you love. Ideas for your backyard garden do not have to be expensive or work-intensive in order to create a lush, vibrant landscape to enjoy.

Before you begin planning to turn your backyard garden ideas into reality, examine your backyard. You’ll need to know what plant hardiness zone in which you reside. This will guide your plant selection. You can learn which zone you live in by obtaining a plant hardiness zone map from your local county cooperative agent or by searching the Internet. Once you know which zone applies to your area, you can search for plants that thrive in your region.

You’ll want to place your backyard garden in an area where the soil is loamy or sandy loam rather than clay. You can amend the soil with organic material to improve drainage, if necessary, to make a less-than-perfect area become perfect for planting your landscape plants. Do not select an area that holds standing water after heavy rains because the roots of most plants will develop problems when left in standing water.

Choose Plants That Thrive In Sun

If your backyard is exposed to full sunlight, you want to choose plants that thrive in the sun. Black mondo grass, angel trumpet, daylilies, most evergreens, and many ferns are only a few of the choices for backyard gardens that thrive in full sun. The same is true for full shade. If your yard is shady, select plants such as hostas, bellflowers, rhododendrons, yews, boxwood, hemlock or some of the other shade-loving plants. You can easily learn which plants love full sun or full shade by consulting with your local gardening center or researching plants you love via the Internet.

If you live in a dry region such as the western United States, choose plants for your backyard garden that require little water. This will cut down the maintenance and expense of maintaining your garden as well as helping the environment. Cacti and succulents are great ideas for these types of backyard gardens. Add large stones or rocks to add interest to the garden and you’ll have a garden that is the envy of your friends.

Perhaps you have the perfect backyard garden environment which can support a wide range of plants. You might have wonderful soil that is loamy and drains well combined with partial shade, making your plant choices almost endless. If you are this fortunate, you’ll want to incorporate foliage and flowering plants that are low maintenance.

Displaying Your Plants

It’s a good idea to place your most beautiful plants in locations which can be enjoyed by viewing from a window of your home as well as from seating areas outdoors. Add some interesting plants near the back door and along walkways too, to get the most from your gardening efforts.

No matter what ideas you choose to implement in your backyard garden, the most important thing is that you enjoy your [gardening] efforts. Select plants you love and that hold interest for you so that caring for you garden will never seem a burden but will be a joyful way to spend some of your free time. Also, take time to sit back and enjoy your beautiful backyard garden.

Create Stunning Bonsai Trees - With Very Little Work?
There's finally a quick and easy, Step by Step, A to Z guide to creating your very own Bonsai Trees…even if you're new at it and you're not exactly a "green thumb".

Watching the Tube . . . Outdoors
14 Apr 2007 at 1:23pm
Maureen Jenson, the editor of Home Theater magazine, also sees what she calls ?a huge trend? in outdoor viewing, particularly in the area of weather-resistant equipment, which is designed to be left outdoors.
And we're off . . . it looks like this is a trend that is picking up steam and is not going to […]

Friday the 13th
13 Apr 2007 at 9:43pm
"A guru can cook for you, but can't eat for you" -Baba Hari Dass
"When bankers get together for dinner they discuss art. When artist get together for dinner they discuss money". -Oscar Wilde
The truest mark of greatness is insatiability". –Henry Fielding
..
..
"A leaf falls-
fluttering.
The Earth reaches up-
grabbing it"
-written in one of my sketch […]

Rescue Rick . . . to the rescue
12 Apr 2007 at 11:50pm
No it's not me, it's another Rick, and I don't know what to believe when looking at this site, take this line for
I want to create awareness regarding the frequency and severity of lawn mower s. I am the only yard safety advocate acting as an individual in the world. Indeed, I am the […]

Brick Driveway Detail
12 Apr 2007 at 9:41am
A couple of days ago I posted on Appreciation of Stone #26, and left a link to where there were more images in my Fotki folder for this job. There was a comment about the brick detail for the drive and after reading that I decided to delve into that aspect of the job a […]

Bad marketing #1
11 Apr 2007 at 10:51pm
Looking to add a fireplace to your patio? I don't think this site is going to sell many . . . .
Or it may be just an excuse to grab the url for fireplace-design and hope to sell ads.

Finally, obtain a great lawn almost instantly.
Give me ONE Day and I'll make
your lawn the most dazzling
spectacle on the block…

Are you planning to build a backyard deck this year? Maybe you already have a deck and simply want to update it to make it more a part of your lifestyle. Whatever your specific situation, you’ll want to incorporate some backyard deck ideas that will allow you to have the best possible deck for the least possible investment. You’ll also want a deck that will last for years and years with little or no maintenance. Here are some ideas for backyard decks that may help you design the deck that is perfect for your home and your family.

Consider a spa deck. It can be so relaxing to come in from a hard day of work to sit in a hot tub of Jacuzzi on your backyard deck . If you are planning a spa deck, incorporate some privacy in your plans. You can do this by placing structural timbers on the side of the deck which are visible to neighbors and planting climbing vines so that they will climb these timbers. You can create the same effect by stringing lightweight rope from nails placed at the top and bottom of the deck supports and allowing the vines to grow to cover these ropes. At the end of the growing season, you can remove the ropes and re-do the vines next spring.

Built in plants are great. If you love plants, why not build planters into your deck design? You can easily create flower boxes, or containers in which you can plant large specimen plants or small trees right on the deck. Use the same materials that are used for building the deck to provide a sense of continuity and wholeness to the overall design. You can create planters that have interesting geometric designs using the materials, or simply build boxes. Either way, you’ll want to include a means for the planters to drain easily and make sure the planters are positioned so that the drainage will flow off the edges of the deck.

Use low maintenance materials. You can create an all-wood deck and keep it low maintenance by treating the wood with an all-weather finish product specifically made for use on decks. Be sure that any finish you apply to the wood deck is not going to become slippery when wet to prevent possible accidents. Today, with composite materials, you can build a deck that looks and feels like wood but actually contains no wood at all. These composite materials will last for decades without any refinishing whatsoever. While the expense may be slightly higher when you initially build the deck, it will become less expensive as the years go by because you will not have to invest in refinishing and retreating any wooden deck materials.

Create areas for sun and shade. When designing your perfect backyard deck, incorporate areas which are exposed to full sun for lounging on sunny days. But too much sun is not a good thing, so you’ll want to include areas that are shaded. This can be accomplished by building a roof over a portion of the backyard deck to shade one area and leaving another area without any covering.

Modular seating or not? You may want to have built-in benches along the sides of your deck, or you may want to use moveable seating in the form of outdoor furniture. That choice is entirely up to your personal preferences. However, you might consider including both! Create a built-in bench around a corner planter. Then place an umbrella table and comfortable chairs in the center of the deck or on the sunny side of a deck that contains both sunny and shady areas.

There are infinite ideas for backyard decks but it all comes down to building a deck that you and your family will love and use regularly. Make your [deck design] welcoming and homey and you’ll find that during pleasant weather you actually have another ‘room’ added to your home!