5 Landscaping Ideas for a New Yard
You’ve closed on your new home, unpacked your belongings and breathed a sigh of relief. Now it’s time to look outside and turn your attention to the landscaping. If you’re lucky, you purchased a home that was once owned by a master gardener. However, you are not, and now you’re trying to figure out how to not only keep up its appearance but make it your own. Here are some simple things you can do to personalize your outdoor living space.
Spread Some Mulch
Bringing in mulch to spread around the base of your landscaped plants is
easy and will pay off in the long run. Organic mulch options, like bark dust,
will provide beautiful color to the yard and keep plants hydrated. Inorganic
mulch options, like stones or pebbles, will last longer but can be harder to spread
due to their weight. Both options will help prevent weeds from popping up.
Investing an afternoon spreading mulch can also save you a lot of maintenance
time later on.
Find A Favorite Spot
Outdoor seating is an integral part of landscaping a backyard. You can easily
incorporate room amid plants and garden beds. Place a metal café table near
your favorite rose bushes or even hang a hammock between two mature shade
trees. Finding a spot in the yard that you can enjoy daily, while also being
comfortable, will help you use your outdoor space more often.
Add Some Steppingstone
Many
backyards have gates or side entry points that allow you to enter the yard
without going through the house. These areas are often forgotten and usually,
don’t include any kind of walkway or path. Consider adding steppingstones from
the gate to the back patio to help encourage the use of the pathway without
bringing dirt into your new home. Installing just a few stones will also help
keep shoes out of the mud and provide a stable area that’s safe to use.
Add
Some Lighting
A string of patio lights or outdoor solar lights will make the yard safer in
the dark and allow you to use your yard well after dark. Go a step further and
add a fire pit to the patio (either a permanent or less expensive portable
one). The extra light will add a certain ambiance to your yard and encourage
your family to get outdoors more often.
Make
it Private
There will be areas of your yard that you will want to enjoy without the
glances from neighbors walking by. Have fun with it and start some outdoor
projects by planting a row of boxwoods for some semi-private areas or even hang
some lattice on one side of the patio. Windscreens and vertical gardens are
other ways that you can use the vertical space in the yard to add privacy.
Adding a shade canopy or large umbrella can create a sense of privacy for homes
with two-story neighbors.
Add
Native Plants
These are the plants that you may notice growing along the edge of a lake,
beside roadways, and in untamed areas while on a hike. Native flowers need
little water and will attract pollinators to your yard. They’ll also cut down
on the amount of time you’ll have to spend maintaining your landscape.