Backyard Landscaping Design Ideas solves the problem of not knowing how to plan, design and build your backyard. You have probably never landscaped a backyard before so how do you know what design will look great and suit your backyard.
It’s hard to image what a backyard will look like before it’s complete. You can spend a considerable money on landscaping only to be disappointed with the result and find that it doesn’t add value to your property.
I highly recommend that you use a backyard landscaping design ideas tool to help you avoid poor designs and costly mistakes. This tool provides photos and plans of successful and popular landscape designs. Simply choose a design that suits your backyard and your budget.
Table of Contents
A Successful Landscaping Design
Successful backyard landscaping design ideas must take into consideration all of your requirements. It must also utilize many of the principles and techniques of standard landscape design.
The first and most important consideration is the weather. The landscape design must take advantage of the region’s climate. How much sun, rain, snow and wind does your yard receive during the year? When these questions are answered we can incorporate the requirements into our design.
Once we understand the climate we can choose the right types of plants that will prosper in your backyard. We can incorporate a sprinkler system and the right amount of drainage into the design. The design can include extra shade with a pergola, gazebo or shade cloth. Maybe you are going to need a pool heater.
Other items for consideration are:
- the size of the space
- the slope of the land
- durability of design elements
- degree of privacy required
- low level of maintenance
The final consideration is your budget. There’s no point getting ahead of yourself if you have a small budget. Organize yourself by arranging your requirements in the order of priority and cost. Then select out everything from the top of the list until your budget runs out.
How to Select a Landscape Theme
Backyard landscaping design ideas using themes have become popular in recent times. Some choose a theme to complement their climatic region such as tropical, beach or desert theme. Others choose an exotic location such as Bali, Hawaii, Japan, Rome or Egypt.
You don’t need to make the whole backyard one big theme. Simply incorporate some aspects of a theme into one corner of your backyard. You may build a Balinese style pergola with a stone Buddha to complete the picture.
A Japanese-style rock garden can be constructed to fill in an area that would be too expensive to pave or build a conventional garden with shrubs and trees.
A simple fire pit can add character to one corner of the backyard. It may look good and be functional as well providing warmth during cooler nights.
How to Use Landscaping Rocks
Landscaping rock and gravel is added into many backyard landscaping design ideas to add texture and contrast to the surrounding gardens, pathways and lawns.
Landscaping rock and gravel is most frequently used to cover over bare ground where plants and lawns will not grow due to poor soils and lack of rainfall. However, these products are much more useful than covering an unsightly area. A rock can become a focal point to garden. Gravel can lead your eyes to another part of the landscape. Think of a Japanese garden where the gravel is raked into patterns of circles, wavy lines and geometric designs.
When installing a large rock make sure you partially bury the rock to give it stability and character. Dig down into the ground to make a simple foundation about six inches deep until you reach solid ground. Place the rock in the hole and back fill. This makes it look like a natural feature. The rock will be secure in position. After all, you don’t want the rock to fall over when a child is climbing on it.
Landscaping rocks and gravel can easily be sourced from garden centres and comes in many shapes and sizes to suit everyone’s requirements. Many garden centres sell rocks by weight. They sell decorative landscaping gravel by cubic weight, size or by the bag and often it can be home delivered.
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The Right Landscaping Plants
Finding the right landscaping plants for your backyard landscaping design ideas can seem like a daunting task. There are so many plant species each with its own characteristics. The most important factor is selecting plants that thrive in your climatic region. Your local garden centre will be able to help you select the right plants for your location.
Most landscaping designs will require plants for borders. Select low, slow growing plants that are hardy and tolerate full sun. Decorative grasses are a really good choice for borders.
I recommend planting perennial plants that grow back every spring season to give the garden a new look for the summer. Tulips are a good choice as they double in number each year. You don’t have to do much to have an interesting garden that is full of color and texture.
Some landscaping designs are incorporating herb gardens. These gardens are very easy to establish and grow. They not only look good but provide herbs for your cooking. Common herbs are rosemary, parsley and coriander that can be used in many recipes.
The Right Landscaping Equipment
Depending on your landscape design you are going to need some gardening equipment to upkeep your property. Everyone wants a backyard that is low maintenance. However, there is no such thing as no maintenance so you will need some tools and equipment. For example, if you have a lawn you will need a lawnmower.
Common tools are:
- lawnmower
- gardening trimmers
- plant cutters
- rakes, brooms, spades
- basic tools – hammer, saw, pliers, etc.
Pressure Washers
The most useful tool I have ever purchased is a high pressure washer. They only cost around $100 but are very useful for cleaning everything outside. When I bought my pressure washer I never thought it would be so useful. And now I cannot live without it. I use it on the driveway, patio and paths. I have pressure washed the concrete tile roof which came up like new. It works well on security screens, insect screens, gutters and patios covers. You can even wash the car and it’s really good for washing the wheels.
If you need to use a more expensive items of equipment consider hiring it instead of making a purchase. Often I have purchased equipment only to use it once and then it sits in the garage for years. When establishing a new garden you may want to hire soil digging equipment, wheel barrows, ladders and other equipment rather than waste money purchasing.
Desert Landscaping Design
Whether you live in a dry climate or not you can incorporate a desert feature into your landscape plans. Desert landscape features are very popular because they are low maintenance and always look good. Rather than spend money on irrigation it’s a wise choice to build a desert garden.
The main thing to take into consideration is the right type of plant for your climatic region. After all, you don’t want to plant a cactus in a snow-belt region. Desert friendly plants are hardy, tolerating the hot sun and will grow in poor soils with low nutrients.
A desert landscape is an inexpensive option. The materials, such as gravel, rocks and desert plants are cheap. What makes it really affordable is you can build the garden yourself as a do-it-yourself project.
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Picture Ideas of Your Dream Landscaping Design
There is nothing more useful than to have a picture in your hands of what you want your backyard to look like. A picture makes it so much easier to create your landscape. Show your picture to landscaping contractors to ensure they really understand your requirements and what the backyard will look like. This is the ultimate way to prevent any misunderstanding or misinterpretation of your requirements.
Landscaping picture ideas help prevent you from making mistakes when creating your perfect backyard. But where can you find a picture of the backyard you have in your mind? Maybe you will get lucky and find a book that has pictures of the landscape you’re are thinking about. A google search may produce a picture or two of your dream garden. Sometimes a trip to the local library might produce results.
Recommended Product
I recommend this fantastic digital product called Ideas4Landscaping that is a complete landscaping resource of over 7,000 plans, photographs, videos and design ideas on all aspects of landscaping.
This product will give you the ideas and inspiration you need to start your dream backyard landscape – complete with pergolas, patios, pools, decks, sheds, gazebos, gardens, pathways, lawns, water features, walls & fences and much more.
Don’t pay a professional landscape gardener thousands of dollars for their ideas when you can purchase this amazing product for under $50.
Most of the landscaping ideas are simple, quick and easy that can be completed yourself in a weekend at a cost much lower than you would pay a landscape contractor!
