Home
Design Basics Front Yard Ideas
Backyard Landscaping
Small Gardens
Patio Design
Design Elements Design Styles
Landscape Plans
Landscape Plants
Landscape Pictures
Solutions Hillside Landscape
Pool Landscaping
Dec. Concrete
Other Info Landscape Ideas Blog
landscape Software
On A Budget

Subscribe To This Site
XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines

Backyard Landscaping Ideas

Beautiful and classy backyard landscaping ideas that will accent and compliment your home.

The best ideas for landscaping your backyard will be based on your personality and lifestyle. Unlike landscaping ideas for the front yard which are generally for appearance and access, backyards are designed for relaxing, entertaining, and privacy.

The Bones Of Backyard Landscape Design

The bones or framework for your backyard landscaping ideas should begin with a list of the purposes, uses, and future possibilities of the area. Future possibilities may include a pool, mother-in-law house, getting rid of the play area when the kids are grown, or any number of reasons. Give it some thought.

Once you have an idea of what you want to do, you can create a simple bubble graph or even use some free landscaping software to help you designate where you want everything to go.

Once you have an idea of where everything should go, it's time to figure out the necessary elements that will be used in the design.

Notice two things at this point -

  • I haven't mentioned budget at all. We'll get to that. But first we want to know how we really really really would like our backyard to be if we had no landscaping budget at all. It's always so important to plan for and get what you want rather than to settle.

    Designing without budget in mind will allow you to design more creatively without restrictions. Designing a backyard plan like this will allow you to either do the whole project over time, look for materials that will fit the plan as well as the budget, or eliminate some areas. Regardless, a complete plan is necessary before you ever begin.

  • We haven't looked at any landscaping pictures or other peoples ideas. This is because it's a good idea to first place elements according to how you feel they should go. While this may be totally changed, it will help reflect your personality into your backyard landscaping ideas.

Necessary Elements

What are necessary elements?

At this point you should have at the least, a simple sketch or bubble graph with the ideas for landscaping your backyard. If you plan on a pool, patio, garage, play area, vegetable garden, or whatever, it should all be in there. And you should have your entries, gates, doors, etc. designated where they will go.

Access is a necessary element. The walkways, paths, step stones, and driveways needed to get to and from these areas are necessary elements that need to be placed in the landscape design first.

Also See: Landscape planning for a checklist of ideas and special considerations in landscape design such as dealing with slopes, drainage issues, and more.

Now that all your personal needs and wants as well as the necessary elements are in place, you can start to add the rest of the design around them. And to help get some ideas, we need to look at some landscaping pictures and videos.

Backyard Pictures, Videos, And Design Ideas

Pictures and ideas for other peoples backyards is the best place to start and especially if you don't have a clue of what kind of backyard design you want.