Designing your backyard, allows you to mesh the comfort and style of the inside of your home with the natural calm of the outdoors. This extends your living space and lets you have a wonderful spot to entertain, garden and relax. While most people consider landscaping, involving plants, trees and shrubs, you can also further enhance your outdoor living space with hardscaping. Hardscaping involves the things in your yard that are not plants. Here are 5 DIY hardscaping design tips for homeowners.
- Create a stone wall. Walls can be used to divide living areas from other spaces in your yard or they an just be used for decor or structure. You can also simply use rocks to outline your garden beds adding borders. Stone walls can be created by visiting a stone yard or home and garden center. You will need to decide how many rocks you will need and you will likely need a mortar or cement paste to use to bond the rocks together and keep them in place.
- Another option is to create a water feature. Water features are calming and add a soothing, natural element to any outdoor space. While this seems like a huge project it can really be quite simple. You can find fountains at a local hardware store that are very easy to assemble. Another option is to create a small pond in your yard on your own. This will require you to dig a hole, line the hole properly, purchase a pump and run water from your hose into the pond. This can be done in a simple weekend and has great results!
- If you are handy with wood, you can create an arbor in your yard. Arbors add nice details to your yard and can emphasize a walkway or passageway. You can even create a trellis and allow plants or vines to grow up the arbor for a beautiful, natural look that will be sure to impress your guests.
- Gazebos are another great hardscaping element. If you have the tools, you can create your own in your yard using wood. However, there are also many kits you can buy with the materials that require some assembly to be installed. Gazebos look great, plus they provide you with a covered space to entertain or relax that is sheltered from the sun, rain and more. You can even add netting to keep bugs, mosquitos and other pests out!
- Finally, define your patio with pavers, bricks or stones. You can do this your self for a great spot to entertain that can hold chairs, tables and other outdoor furniture. First, level the area. Then you can begin to place the slate or stone, filling in the spaces with stone dust. This is less permanent than cement, but will firmly keep stones or materials in place for the long term.
These hardscaping tips are DIY projects that any homeowner can use that will significantly improve the look and feel of your outdoor living space. Not only do they look great but they will also be functional. Hardscaping goes hand in hand with good landscaping such as design and maintenance of your lawn with Blay’z Turf Pro.
