Explore the Possibilities

There are several good reasons to browse through quality backyard landscaping photos before you start your project. Firstly, you can get an overview of some of the features you can add to your backyard landscape. After all, there’s a lot more you can do with the yard than stick in a few shrubs and a flowerbed.

You might install a rock waterfall in one corner of your backyard or create a secluded seating area for relaxing with a good book. Add just the right landscape lighting and you’ve got a stunning display for your evening backyard parties and barbecues, and the occasional romantic evening with someone special. Instead of the plain concrete walkways everyone else has, you can construct unique and attractive paths with flagstone or pavers and landscape using lush groundcovers.

Bring Your Ideas to Life

Unless you’re a visual artist, it can be hard to describe exactly how you want your landscaping to look. Maybe you have a general idea in mind, but nothing you could actually sketch well enough to show a landscaper what you really want. Or maybe you’re the “know it when you see it” type. Browse through enough pictures of professionally created backyard landscaping and you’re bound to hit on one (or dozens) that make you think, “That’s it! That’s what I want for my backyard!”

Backyard Landscaping Photos can Give you Unique Ideas for:

• Patios and decks
• Water features like fountains and ponds
• Paths and walkways
• Garden furniture and seating areas
• Fences and privacy screens
• Landscaping with rocks and stones
• Landscaping slopes and retaining walls

The Problem with Most Landscaping Pictures Online

When you’re first getting general ideas on how to landscape around your backyard, browsing through whatever free pictures you can find online is fine. Once you’re ready to collect ideas that are truly appropriate for your backyard, climate, needs and preferences, though, those pictures you find “here and there” start to fall short. First of all, it’s hard to find a really thorough collection of photographs that covers everything from plants to patios.

The other problem is that backyard landscaping photos are rarely taken with do-it-yourself landscapers in mind. If you’re going to try to reproduce a landscaping idea based on a photo, you need that photo to be clear and show the landscape in detail from several different angles. Trying to find all that by searching the Internet could take hours and you still might not find what you need.

Instead of wasting time looking for pictures and ending up with a few images of “something that might work,” pick up a collection of backyard landscaping photos designed especially for home landscapers.

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Plant Remarkable Trees and Shrubs

The right stand-out tree or shrub can add a unique touch to your backyard in just a little more time than it takes to dig a hole. Try laceleaf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Crimson Queen’), devil’s walking stick (Aralia spinosa), Asian white birch (Betula platyphylla japonica), ironwood (Ostrya virginiana), Korean evodia (Evodia daniellii), or Nootka falsecypress (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis).

Before you buy, though, make sure you check the tree or shrubs growth habits and characteristics (does it drop a lot of leaves, attract bugs or become invasive?) as well as how tall it well get.

Design an Inviting Seating Area

Adding even a simple seating area to your backyard can make it look like you spend hours carefully designing the area, when in reality it took you just an hour or two to add some seating. Start with a few garden chairs or a swing and add a table.

For an added feeling of privacy, place them against some kind of back drop. You might set your furniture near some bushes, in the corner of a fence or place an archway behind it. Another, slightly more labor intensive, method is to build a low rock wall behind it using stacked flagstones. Finally plant some highly scented flowers or herbs close enough to your seating that you can enjoy their perfume as you sit and relax.

Create an Eye-catching Focal Point

Does your backyard have a focal point? When you walk out there, what’s the first thing that catches your eye? If there’s nothing in particular that stands out, consider installing a large item of garden décor, such as a statue, in a prominent area and landscaping around it.

One simple way to make the décor stand out is to design a Victorian carpet around it. A Victorian carpet is a bed of flowers planted in a pattern that encircles a statue or other tall focal point with patterned. A simple version might include lobelia for the outer-most circle, alternating pansies and petunias for the middle circle and liatris for the circle closest to the statue.

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Spruce up your patio

Turn your patio into a place you’ll actually enjoy spending time instead of just somewhere to store your stuff. The first step is to put in some genuinely comfortable seating. Consider a hammock (on a stand, if there’s nowhere you can hang it) or an Adirondack chair. If you still need somewhere to store your stuff, opt for a long storage bench and a small table with a storage cabinet.

Greenery is important, too. Hang up some baskets of trailing flowers and vines. Place some terra cotta pots of flowers and herbs here and there. Make sure there’s some decent lighting out there, too. If you don’t enjoy that stark porch light, install low voltage lighting near the steps or put up some tiki torches.

Install a cooking area

Love to barbecue or cook over an open fire? If you really want to go all out, consider installing an outdoor kitchen. If you’re more the barbecue type, all you’ll really need to do is lay a brick or flagstone base for your grill or fire “pit” stand. Then set up your seating area, such as a picnic table or one or two garden tables with chairs. Lighting is important here, too. You’ll want to install something like a hooded flood light that lets you fully light the area for evening meals with family. If your plans include a few romantic meals with your significant other, though, install one or two gentler lanterns.

Enhance your walkway

Granted, if you have concrete paths running through your backyard, digging them up and replacing them with something more aesthetically pleasing is a little too involved for a single weekend. If you’re walkway isn’t well edged, edging is your first step. Then get rid of those boring plastic walkway lights and replace them with something unique, like bronze mushrooms or stained glass flowers. Frame your walkway with an arbor or, alternatively, eye-catching stone pillars or matching plantings on each side. Framing your path with similar yet slightly different statues, such as women in different poses, works well in a casual backyard landscaping design.

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Planning a Cactus Garden

Cacti require eight to twelve inches of well-drained sandy soil. If your soil isn’t this type, a raised bed with cactus soil (see further in this article) will also work well.

When you’ve settled on a location, decide on a size and shape — more-or-less geometric shapes are easier to work. Even if your garden design is casual, the edges of the bed can be left natural. Plan the bed somewhat larger than you think you’ll need — some “flat-padded” types can grow up to four feet around within a few years.

Choosing Cacti

Preparing the Ground

Material

Rocks and Tile
Outdoor tile blocks or ordinary rocks can be used to build a wall around a raised cactus bed. Placing larger rocks or boulders within the bed will reflect more sun to the cacti and protect them from the wind.

Plastic Lining
A plastic lining is optional, but it eliminates weeds and it will save you a lot of time and backaches. Any heavy plastic material that covers the length of your garden, such as an old tarp, will do. If it isn’t quite the right shape for your planting bed, it can be cut into strips.
will do.

Cactus Soil
If your soil isn’t the sandy, well-drained type, then cactus soil is a must. Because you’ll need enough to fill your garden to the top of the wall, wait until the bed is completed to buy the soil. If you cannot find cactus soil, you can make your own by thoroughly mixing two parts potting soil, two parts sand and one part gravel.

Building a Terraced hill Cactus Garden

Liner and soil
When you’ve formed the area of your planting bed, cover the area
with the plastic liner, laying the liner in strips if needed. Then build the wall of the planting bed (a foot to a foot and a half high) with dry stacked rocks or edging block around of the garden bed, with drainage holes left in the first layer of the wall.

For a brick or other mortared wall, soil can be added when the wall is finished. For a dry-stacked rock wall, it will be easier to add one level of soil after each level of rock, to hold the rocks in place. Also, of course, if you plan to plant the cacti among boulders, it will be easier to place the boulders before adding the soil. Smooth the soil out, but don’t pack it.

Planting the Cacti
Needless to say, planting cacti calls for thick, preferably rubber, gloves. Leave them in the pots and set the on the beds, rearranging them until you get the look you want. Before planting, supplement your bed with a small handful of compost or shredded wood chips, in the planting hole of your cacti, which will provide nourishment for several years.

Leave the cacti in the pots so you can move them around until you find a pleasing design. When you’ve found the right arrangement, plant the cacti, pot and all, in the ground. (Doing this means that in winter they can be removed and stored).

If you choose to remove them from the pots, take care not to disturb the roots, which are quite sensitive roots. Slide the plants in and firm the soil around them. On top of your cactus bed provide an inch and a half of pea gravel mulch.

Do not water in! Wait two to three weeks for root damage to heal and then water well.

Cactus Garden Maintenance

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Planning

Cutting beds
With a cutting bed, you can cut without worry. Select an inconspicuous location along a garage or in an unused corner of your backyard. Be sure, though, that the area will have enough sun and rich, well-drained soil like the other beds. Draw your existing beds on paper, noting varieties, bloom times, and heights. Then pencil in the flowers you want to cut.

Stagger the planting of each flower species so the blooms don’t all appear and disappear at once. Use bloom cycles as your guide to create a mix, and don’t worry about matching colors or heights.

Row-planting or Scattered Plantings
If you don’t have room for a dedicated cutting bed, you can make your cutting garden part of an existing vegetable garden, where row-planted flowers will blend right in.

If you haven’t got a vegetable patch, you can simply place scattered plantings of the plants you want to cut throughout the garden and take only one or two flowers from each plant at a time.

Flower Choice

Cut Flower Growing Tips

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Plant Choice

Yellow

• Vicary golden privet (Ligustrum x vicaryi) — a vase-shaped shrub that commonly grows 4 to 6 feet tall, but can reach a height of 10 to 12 feet. Golden privet has bright yellow foliage when grown in full sun. Plants grown in the shade have yellow-green leaves. Golden privet is hardy in USDA hardiness zone 4.
• Goldflame Spirea (Spiraea x bumalda ‘Goldflame’) is a small 2 to 3 foot shrub. Spring foliage consists of shades of red, copper, and orange that gradually changes to yellow-green and finally to green by summer. Fall leaf color is copper-orange. Plants also produce pink flowers in summer.
• Yellow-leafed Caryopterises (Caryopteris incana) — golden foliage, spikes of amethyst-blue blooms, and compact growing habit.
  The hearty ‘Sunshine Blue’ variety is recommended.
• (Euonymus fortunei: ‘blondy’ and ‘gold splash’ varieties)
  Golden Globe Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Golden Globe’) — a dense, globe-shaped shrub with bright golden yellow foliage. It grows about 3 to 4 feet high.

Red

• Red-leaf Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii ‘Atropurpurea’) — Maintains it’s red foliage throughout the growing season
• Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’)
• (Panicum virgatum: ‘Prairie Fire’,'Sheyenne’, and ‘Amber Waves’ varieties) — clumping grass with puplish-green foliage
• a tropical look - red or purple leafed Cordyline fructicosa hybrids add drama and interest to a shady area.
• Dodonaea viscosa ‘Purpurea’. A 4m tall narrow shrub with bronze-purple leaves, especially in winter.
• Photinia glabra ‘Rubens’ Rich red foliage on a 3m shrub in spring-summer. Excellent hedge.

Blue

• Blue fescue (Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’)
• Common sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Berggarten’)
• Blue juniper (Juniperus squamata) — A number of varieties exist, including ‘Meyeri’, ‘Blue Carpet’ and ‘Blue Star’. Blue Carpet is a prostrate variety that is especially suitable for cascade and semi-cascade styles. Other varieties can be used for any style other than broom.
• Hostas with blue foliage include
  Blue Angel,
  Blue Cadet,
  Blue Giant,
  Blue Moon,
  Blue Umbrellas,
  Bressingham Blue,
  Candy Hearts,
  Dorset Blue,
  Frances Williams,
  Krossa Regal,
  Love Pat,
  and Pizzazz,

• Blue or Meserve holly (Ilex x meserveae) - An evergreen with shiny dark bluish-green leaves on purple stems. The leaves are edged with coarse tears, and the female plant bears brilliant red berries.

• POPULUS ALBA The white poplar has white twigs and undersides of the leaves, the best form for the garden being the erect-growing pyramidalis. P. canescens has grey leaves and makes a large, vigorously suckering tree.
• TILIA PETIOLARIS tree with silvery undersides to the large, drooping leaves; in T. tomentosa the underneath is quite white.
• Snow-on-the-mountain (Euphorbia marginata) — ground cover of zones 4-8, Green and white foliage; very aggressive.
• Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina) — thick, gray, soft woolly leaves. Perennial Herb. Common Names, Height, 12 inches.
• White sage (Salvia apiana) — can be a slow growing, difficult to establish plant that can take up to three years to reach a mature size. It has highly aromatic, waxy gray leaves.

Eye-catching Greens

• Savin juniper (Juniperus sabina ‘Blue Danube’) — bluish green
• Holly (Ilex x meserveae ‘Blue Girl’) — shiny blue-green foliage and red berries.

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Types of roses

Hardy and/or late blooming

• Hawkeye Belle (shrub rose)
  While most roses need protection in USDA zone 5, the Buck rose variety does not, although some protection in zone 4 is advisable. In order for these roses to be ready to overwinter in zones 4 and 5 they should be planted by June 15th.
• R. rugosa.
  Also known as the Japanese Ramanas rose , this is one hardiest of roses around. It can survive temperatures as low as -50° F and is also remarkably drought-tolerant. In addition, the flowers produce a strongly fruity aroma and the hips are some of the showiest of any known rose.
• R. sempervirens
  This wild Italian Rose offers delicate polished that stay green for the better part of the winter.
• R. carolina
  A rose that blooms in late summer and autumn.
  

Climbers

Those climbing roses whose names start with ‘Climbing’ or ‘Cl’ are sports (that is, genetic mutations of the bush varieties with the same name). Climbing roses whose names do not contain ‘Climbing’ or ‘Cl’ are cross-breeds. Cl climbers produce an abundance of blooms in spring and scattered blooms all summer long. Moreover, their flowers often larger and of higher quality than those of bush roses.
• CL Iceberg
  This rose can reach up to 10 feet tall and in spring is produces an abundance of pure white, semi-double blooms on stems that are nearly thornless. Unfortunately, though, it can be rather difficult to find.
• Dizzy Heights (FRYblissful)
  Produces idyllically shaped blooms in red-pink to deep scarlet blooms. The foliage that starts off reddish and matures to a deep, glossy green. This rose is also highly disease resistance.

• Praire rose (R. setigera)
  This spring-bloomer with pink-magenta single blooms works well trained on pillars.
• Cherokee rose (R. lavigata)
  Good pillar or climbing rose for mild climates, with glossy leaves and large white flowers densely arranged on garland-like canes. It’s a fast grower and in some areas can become invasive — even climbing utility poles and reaching up into the lines. However, this growth pattern also makes it a good screening plant.
• Memorial rose (R. wichuraiana)
  A vigorous trailing species with small, polished, deep green leaves and delicate white flowers. This rose is popularly used as a ground cover, as well.
• Himalayan rose (R. macrophylla)
  A handsome, tall growing Rose with many large, full-pink flowers and does well on pillars.

Miniature (teas)
Despite being temperamental and disease-prone, these roses remain favorites with many gardeners.

• Apricot twist
  Idyllically formed, fragrant, full double blooms in an unusual apricot-amber. It’s also relatively hardy and can tolerate underwatering and minimal spraying.
• Galaxy
  Velvety, deep red buds open into exhibition shaped blooms. This one will provide you with plenty of blooms all season.
• Peaches ‘n’ Cream
  A vigorously growing rose whose pale pink flowers produce a slight fragrance.

Roses with Unusual Colors

• Green ice
  Blooms in a pale shade of mint green. However, in some specimens the flowers are simply white so careful selection is necessary.
• Julia’s rose
  Strikingly usual and elegant blooms of copper and parchment tan shades blended with soft pink. This is a demanding rose that’s slow to get established and picky about soil and drainage.

Highly Fragrant Roses

• Velvet Fragrance (hybrid tea)
  Very possibly the most fragrant of all deep red roses. Large, beautifully-shaped double blooms of rich, velvety long-lasting red.
• ‘Mr. Lincoln’
  Another rich red rose, this plant also produces a powerful damask fragrance.
• Darlows’s Enigma
  The rich, sweet scent of this rose’s wild rose-like blooms can sometimes be smelled from 10 feet away.

Ramblers
Ramblers are not a separate species, but are a group of vigorous climbers that bloom usually once a year, usually in great profusion. These are the stately magnificent, climbing roses seen in the paintings of Victorian England or in photos of some of today’s English gardens growing over archways or climbing up the walls of houses, or near cottage doorways and garden entrances. They can also be trained to climb into trees or to cover small buildings, accenting entryways, fences, patio coverings, porches, pergolas and gazebos. They can be used effectively to hide architectural eyesores.

• Paul’s Himalayan Musk
  Fully double, rosette blooms of lovely, soft, blush-pink, borne in sprays, with each bloom standing out as an individual. The sprays are pendulous, swaying gracefully in gentle breezes. Works grown into a tree.
• R. moschata (R. Brunoni)
  A rambling Himalayan Rose offering plenty of clustered white blooms and bluish foliage. Works well trained to ramble through trees and larger shrubs. Fragrant, white flowers in trusses. Mid-July onwards. Dense growth with gray foliage.
• R. Banksiae
  A rambling Chinese Rose without prickles, most often used in the double yellow form.

Old World Roses

• R. damascena (Damask)
  A good old garden Rose of eastern origin that comes in red, white and striped.
• R. mollis pomifera
  The apple-bearing Rose of older gardens. Produces pink flowers, bluish foliage, and large, attractive hips.
• R. alba
  This double-bloom, white cottage-garden rose with bluish foliage.
  Maiden’s Blush and Celeste are among its garden varieties. ALthough not considered a real species, the name is usually accepted in botanical classification.
• R. gallica
  This and the damask rose are no doubt the ancestors of the modern Hybrid Perpetuals. They are the type of most of the older garden Roses.
• Moss roses
  The traditional roses of Victorian England, moss roses are actually
  Centifolia Roses and Damasks that have developed a distinctive fragrant moss-like growth on the sepals, adding great elegance to the flowers.
• La Ville de Bruxellesa
  Exceptionally beautiful damask rose. One of the most sublime of old roses.

Planting design

Climbers can be trained over an arbor arcing over an entryway, statue, or seating area. For an estate-style design use a geometric layout and incorporate trelliswork, brick paving, and comfortable seating.

Planning

A simple way to plan is with a map of the garden and circles of paper representing each rose. Coins of different sizes can be used to make circles on paper that can be cut our and labeled. When labeling, use an inventory system that makes sense to you, whether that’s dividing the garden in to quadrants or simply giving each rose name an acronym.

When you’re ready to design, place the circles on a large computer-made or hand-drawn blueprint of the garden until you get an arrangement that suits you.

Unique rose garden ideas

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Problems (or why you should landscape a slope)

Slope Landscaping Solutions

Regrading
If the site you’re working with is surrounded by a flat area, removing the turf, smoothing out the soil, and setting the turf in again (or replacing it with new, purchased turf) may be enough.

Terracing
For steeper hills, or those in areas that can’t be re-graded easily, terracing will solve the slope problems by creating smaller, level planting beds. Make level steps up the hill using railway ties (use these around non-edible plants only), boulders, or other building material to create the walls going up the hill. The flat areas can then either be used as individual beds or planted with a low-maintenance, cascading groundcover.

Retaining walls
Another option for steeper hills is a retaining wall at the base of the slope. Behind the wall will be an area of well-drained soil that should be ideal for planting. However, when choosing plants for the area, consider which direction the sun comes in during the summer months—will the wall be blocking sun and creating a pool of shade, or will it be trapping sun and creating a hot, dry area?

Slope Maintenance

Plants for a Slope or Hill

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What Causes Sinkholes?

How to Recognize a Sinkhole

How to Repair a Sinkhole

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Repairing
a Sunken Lawn

Covering the area



If the area is only a few feet across and not more than three inches, you can cover the area with soil mix and allow the grass to grow through it. Mix approximately two parts topsoil with one part sand and spread the mixture over the top of the sunken area. In warmer months, the grass will grow through in
a month or so.

Replacing the sod



For larger areas or those deeper than three inches, the area can be built up with soil and sod placed back on top of it. To keep the
lawn the same color, use a flat-nosed shovel to cut the sod out of the area is small, square sections (if possible). Build the area up with soil and tamp it down or water it to allow it to settle. Then replace the sod. An easier method, if you don’t mind a section of lawn being a shade different from the rest, is to simply dig out the old sod in any way you can, use this broken-up sod along with soil to build up the sunken, then cover the area with new sod squares from a landscaping supply shop.

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