With more families opting for vacationing at home during these tough economic times you may want to add a little fun to your backyard oasis to give the yard a lift and a touch of humor and a more relaxed feel.
photo credit: kthypryn

Here are a few ideas that will take little time or money but will give your home a fresh look.

Backyard Relaxation Center.

Add a hammock, patio table with umbrella or a picnic table to create a relaxing place to kick back to you backyard area or patio. These items can all be bought at garden sales or be as simple as painting your older picnic table or purchasing a new colorful patio umbrella.

If you want to have the new trendy look for garden design add yellows and white in furniture and kitchenware and fiery colors in your garden plants and flowers. It’s amazing what a new tablecloth and patio dishes will add to the décor.

Set up a music center and a place to picnic with family and friends and your relaxation center will become a place to escape from work and stress.

Evening lighting will add an air of adventure and mystery to summer evenings. Tiki lights, solar lighting, lanterns or candles scattered about the backyard will add more hours to use your backyard paradise.

Create a play area for the children with a sandbox and large toy box for the patio or porch. Include chalk for a sidewalk or the patio for playing hopscotch or making a mural. These few simple items will keep your smaller children busy for hours.

Movie posters behind plexi-glass and old 45 records hanging from a patio roof will capture the interest of teens.

Theme gardens

Theme gardens can be changed weekly if you want and will create a fresh look and feel to your living area.

Theme gardens can be centered around color, hobbies, time periods or collectibles.

Assemble a container garden of plants and garden art and mix in knick-knacks that are favorites of family members. If someone collects elephants mix them in among the planters. Kites could be hung on a fence for more color and an airplane mobile could be made for the aviation fan.

Decorate you patio with indoor/outdoor plants with a tropical feel. These plants can be brought in during the winter. And if you place the plants in a way that wander from indoor to outdoors you will create a flow that will mesh the two area together and make small spaces look larger.  This is a great idea for apartments, small patios and balconies.

Garden Art from found or foraged items

Old dressers used for a picnic table, mirrors hung outdoors, interesting window boxes frown teacups and saucers are only a few ideas for garden art pieces that will act as a focal point in the backyard.

A birdbath made from kitchen utensils will add interest to a garden path. So will wind chimes made from silverware hanging from trees.

I have seen window boxes that are filled with teacups and saucers instead of plants. I created a whimsical water fountain that was made from teapots of different sizes and colors, and my fence, displays a collection of decorative birdhouses of all colors.

The main purpose of the backyard is to enjoy time with friends and family and to escape from work and stress. By adding a few new items and colors you can quickly change your backyard into an oasis.

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photo credit: RKHawaii

In the recent years solar lighting is becoming very popular. One reason for its popularity is that after the initial costs for the lighting there are no additional costs.

Solar lighting works by using the sun’s energy and even on overcast days the lights will pick up enough energy to add a beautiful glow to your backyard oasis.

And the popularity of the solar lights has encouraged companies to create lighting for every type of garden and landscape décor.

If you are shopping for solar lighting for around swimming pools, ponds or any other water source, individual solar lights work the best to emphasis the landscape area.

Lighting gardens, decks, walkways, patios or decks are also possible with solar lighting. Depending on the landscape style and design you may want to go with table lamps, hanging lamps, ground lighting or a soft spotlight for a focal emphasis.

The new solar lighting possibilities are limitless. And by working with your backyard landscape design you can create a unique and inviting look.

Many homeowners are lighting their driveways, which makes certain driveways, like mine, easier to navigate in the evenings and adds a welcoming look to your home. Fences also look wonderful with solar lighting.

And one of the biggest advantages to solar lighting is that there are less or no wiring that has to be hidden or buried around your yard. The homeowner has to remember with electrical lighting to use extra care while mowing and to check the wire often to look for wear and tear or if its properly buried so that no one will trip on the cords.

Solar lighting will light up that dark corner in your yard and will illuminate a tree or fountain, adding atmosphere to your backyard oasis.

When you are choosing solar lighting for your backyard, shop around and look at all the solar lighting available. You will also want to keep in mind the color of light that the solar light emits. Lighting is available with a white glow, amber glow, or low soft lighting.  A few lights even flash or are motion activated and work well for security purposes.

And last but not least, your backyard areas are different and may require several different styles of lighting to accent the yard to its best potential. But your lighting still needs to relate from one area to the other. This is often achieved with matching solar designs or color on the lights.

How to Solar Guide has great information on solar lighting and other solar backyard needs. I am particularly impressed with the solar fountains they have reviewed on their site.

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Patioscape design allows for a lot of creativity.

photo credit: Koonisutra

In fact, the possibilities for patios and pools are nearly limitless. Still, the best in the business recommend following basic design rules by answering these questions:

After a careful assessment, it’s time to select your plants.

Color, of course, is the element that usually catches the eye first. Though it can be tough, the designer in you needs to exercise restraint in this area.

Choose colors based on your individual situation. For example, blue tones are popular because they give a feeling of serenity. They look great near a pool. Warm, bold colors – reds, orange and yellows – are temperamental and have a high impact. Mono-aromatic designs are elegant and trendy.

No matter what the trends are, don’t just consider aesthetics. Make sure the plants you choose have similar requirements for light exposure and water. They should also have similar growth vigor, or more aggressive ones might outpace those that grow slowly.

For a well-balanced design use tall, upright plants, mounding or medium-height plants and trailing elements. Work your way from the center to the rim, placing uprights in the center, medium plants around them and trailing elements along the edges.

If the planter is against a wall or in a corner work your way from back to front, with tall plants in the back and trailing elements in front.

Other important considerations are proportion and texture. Aim for the plants to take up to 2/3 of the entire design, leaving 1/3 for the visible part of the planter.

Keep in mind that trailing plants will hide part of your container. Use simpler plants to accent a showpiece planter.

For a pool landscaping plan, one idea is to consider using texture to create a natural design.

Incorporate foliage plants for richness and work with different foliage and flower shapes and sizes. Design professionals favour such varieties as purple fountain grass (regular and dwarf forms), New Zealand flax, Mexican feather grass and sedges. You can also try perennials with intriguing foliage like Hosta, Heuchera, Ajugn, Euphorbia, Sedum or ornamental herbs.

Other excellent foliage plants are coleus, English Ivy, Ornamental Sweet Potato, and Strobilanthes.

For novel flowering plants try Ange Ionia, Nemesia, Bacopa, Calibrachoa or Cleome ‘Linde Armstrong’.

In most cases it’s best to make a design last the entire year, but some gardeners prefer spring and fall planting.

Sometimes plants become less attractive as summer wears on and fall planting becomes necessary. In this case consider including evergreens for winter interest. Try to limit complete change-outs to two to four times yearly, typically when the seasons change. Choose bromeliads over annuals for their longevity. Using mostly perennials will make fewer change-outs necessary.

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Its often surprising to poolscape design professionals how little thought would-be owners of inground luxury pools spare for the details that could make their home and recreational area a coherent, architecturally attractive whole.
photo credit: leozaza

A large number of considerations will determine whether your swimming pool landscape design promotes privacy, convenience and safety. An intelligently conceived swimming pool landscape design will mean the difference between an area for fun and healthy exercise and one that is beautiful enough to add serious value to your home.

There is only one good option for busy individuals to ensure that attention is paid to the small details of their pools construction and design.

You’ll need to hire a seasoned construction company, preferably one that your friends or family have recommended to you. Irresponsible or unscrupulously managed construction companies are notorious for dragging out work for far longer than it needs to take, making them a serious financial risk.

If youre very lucky, you may be able to find a poolscape design company that will quote you a flat rate, rather than by day or by the hour, a system which only encourages slow work.

Pretty much one of the best landscaping ideas for privacy, and a poolscape design that will look great and guard your pool area from inquiring eyes, is to surround it with foliage, creating a thick screen of protective greenery.

The trees you pick do need to be chosen wisely, though. Any tree with an extensive root system will, given a few years, cause damage to the foundation of your home or of your swimming pool. Also trees that drop their leaves in autumn are going to be more trouble than theyre worth – youd prefer your pools good hygiene to be as low-maintenance as possible.

Rather go for evergreen trees – the minimal amount of mess they will create and their consistently beautiful, lush appearance means you wont suddenly find your private space laid bare in winter.

One way to get the lush look you want without cluttering up your swimming pool landscape is to grow vines up trellises. Espalier trees ( trees the branches of which have been pruned and groomed to grow horizontally to either side rather than every which way) are another attractive option, as they create a flat barrier of branches.

These are the best landscaping ideas for privacy, the alternative being a fence or wall, which will lack the gentle arboreal and natural feel of vegetation, but provide the safety and security you might prize over those traits if you have small children.

Another serious consideration if that is the case is getting hold of a strong pool cover that will support the weight of your child should they happen to fall on it.

Its also a good idea to surround your pool with patio tiling, ensuring you of a safe, non-slip surface when you get out of the pool. Lazing outside is one of the most luxurious parts of having a pool, so think about the social space you are constructing and how many people you would  like to be able to entertain.

Lastly, think about style. You would ideally like your swimming pool landscape design to echo the architectural features of your home. Often people renovate their houses without giving any thought to the outmoded style of the pool in the backyard.

Look at a variety of custom designs, remembering always that your dream swimming pool will be the one that fits seamlessly into your dream home.

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Fencing is one way to get the privacy and security that you want in your home. With wood fencing, you get the added advantage of having a great appearance that you don’t get with metal fences.
photo credit: fauxto_digit

Wooden fences are designed in many styles and with different materials, so you need to choose a fence that fits your own landscaping and has the functionality that you also need in your home. The function of the fence is its primary reason so don’t ignore this.

Depending on the homeowner’s end goal and the style of the house itself, wood fences can sometimes fill the need for both form and functionality. For instance, if your chief purpose is to have a semblance of privacy or to add visual appeal to your home, there are many wooden fence styles that can address these requirements.

However if you need a lot of security, then you will probably need to consider a metal or stone fence. These are much more secure, although the aesthetic appearance is not as good as the wood effect.

If the wood fence design is more important, then here are your choices.

Look at the list and choose the one that best fits your needs and the style of your landscaping.

• Picket-style fence. This type of fencing provides quaint charm most suitable for cottage-style homes and those with landscape designs leaning towards English garden themes. Picket-style fencing also comes in a variety of types of which the most popular are dog-ear spaced picket, French gothic spaced picket, and the pointed top spaced picket.
• Split-rail wood fence. Perfect for a country feel, ranch-style homes and those with landscaping inspired by the Southwestern US design should find a good fit with the split-rail wood fencing. The best material for the split-rail style is the Western red cedar wood.
• Log wood fence. This style showcases the true beauty of wood and best matches houses designed with a rustic theme. While most are installed as vertical panels, horizontals log panels are also not uncommon.

Wood Fence Designs: When Functionality is Top Priority

Wood fencing may be a good choice for its aesthetics but on a more practical level, wood fences best serve two principal functions: privacy and durability. For these two important uses, several wood fence designs may be used:

• Stockade fence. With the wood slats vertically aligned without spaces in between and the tops pointed out, stockade fencing is one of the most appropriate wood fence designs when the intention is to afford absolute privacy from the outside.
• Solid board fence. This style of fencing is also great for privacy as it gives a complete barrier to sight. Not only this but it also gives you a noise barrier as well as some security. If you want to improve on the design features, then you can also add latticework to this fence.
• Latticework fence. These fences are very popular as they give users both privacy and also allow for sunlight to penetrate. Besides this, they also provide space for air to blow through as they have diagonal shaped spaces throughout the fencing. If you want, you can also place the openings vertically or horizontally to create square openings instead.

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