You may have the most elaborate landscaping garden design in your backyard, the best looking in the neighbourhood, but if it isn’t functional, then all that work may have been in vain. While we all love to have beautiful gardens with lush plants, if we have family then their needs should be taken into consideration as well. One way is to divide your garden into two or three visual interactive spaces:
- one for play and relaxation
- one for your garden
- and maybe an area for pets.
For the kids, a large open space of lawn would be ideal. You can also use the area to place a table and chairs for outdoor lunches or a romantic summer evening dinner.
Your Firewood
Do you have a tile fire or even an open fire? You need a place in your backyard to store the firewood. It has to be properly set up at a reasonable distance from the house, and also it might attract unwanted animals, such as snakes, mice and even rats.
Your Pets
Do you have pets? You might want to give them the run of the backyard, or you can allocate an area in which they can play and exercise. You can fence the pet area off if you want to protect special plants. Digging dogs and cats that stalk birds need to be contained. Mind you, taking the dog for a regular walk helps a lot as does a fully contained area for cats so they can’t wander at night and don’t kill local fauna.
Screening for Privacy and Rubbish Storage
Appropriate fencing around the backyard is important for both privacy and security. Make sure the fence meshes in well with the landscape you have. Don’t forget a space for the garbage bins. You can either have them at the back door, or if you think the wheelie bins are unsightly, construct a special area for them and use climbing plants on trellises to keep them from view.
The Secret is Functional
Try to have the landscaping done to make everybody happy. What you need is a functional landscaping idea that caters for different family members and the pets. If you love to potter in the garden, make sure you have built that special place with all your plants – flowers, shrubs and even vegetables, where you can spend a relaxing afternoon or weekend weeding and fussing over your plants.
The Trend is Smaller Back Yards
If you involve all the family members in the landscaping plan, then the final result will make everybody happy. They might even have some great ideas to contribute. It’s not about the amount of space, it’s more about how you use it. The trend today is for much smaller backyards, and as a result, there is a tendency to fit as much as possible into the area but leave it uncluttered. Landscaping is a real integral part of your home. You can’t live inside all your free time. Australians love their outdoors. The day of the quarter acre block is long gone, so utilise clever landscaping to get the best bang for your buck.