What does your backyard currently look like? Is it full of life with plenty of foliage, flowers, and grass? If it isn’t, it’s probably time for an upgrade with some backyard landscaping ideas!
Your landscaping is one of the first things you and your guests will notice when walking into your backyard. So you want it to make a good impression! Without it, your backyard can feel boring and unexciting. But adding plants and flowers can instantly create an inviting atmosphere due to vibrant colors and varying shapes.
Keep reading to learn about some backyard landscaping ideas that’ll help transform the look of your outdoor space!
Floral Backyard Landscaping Ideas
1. Pollinator Garden
A pollinator garden is the perfect backyard landscaping idea to bring a rainbow of colors to your backyard.
This gardening method focuses on planting multiple pollen and nectar-producing flowers together. Many of these flowers have bright colors, which local pollinators like bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies will love. So they’ll all congregate around these flowers due to nectar, pollen, and vibrancy. Hence the name of this type of garden!
You can put a pollinator garden anywhere in your backyard that gets plenty of sun. Just be sure you water it regularly and pull weeds out so they don’t take over. Some great pollinator-friendly plants include coneflowers, English lavender, and butterfly bushes.
Placing the garden away from sitting areas might be a good idea if you aren’t fond of bees!
2. A Deer-Proof Flower Garden
If you live in a rural area, you might find deer rummaging through your landscaping work. They’ll often devour your plants and flowers like a salad. So, your best option is to plant deer-proof gardens containing deer-resistant flowers. Plants with strong smells and bitter tastes will keep deer out of your backyard, leaving them to forage elsewhere.
Planting daffodils, in particular, is a great choice to deter deer. Not only are they beautiful, but they contain a compound called lycorine. This compound has a bitter taste. So they won’t touch these flowers, allowing you to enjoy their beautiful blooms.
Some other great deer-resistant flowers and plants for this backyard landscaping idea include marigolds, Russian sage, and peonies. All these have strong scents that deer don’t want to be near.
3. Combine Planters With Bordering In-Ground Beds
In-ground flower beds that border your home can be beautiful on their own. But an excellent way to step them up a notch is by using planters in tandem. This will allow you to bring some color where you lack flower beds.
Decorate your patio with potted plants or use them as bookends for your back door. You can even put flower-filled pots in any large empty spaces you have in your beds.
Your options are endless with this combination. Planting perennials in your flower beds and annuals in your pots might be nice. With this backyard landscaping idea, you’ll have a mixture of blooms throughout the seasons.
4. Flower Walls
If you’re afraid that gardens and flower beds will take up too much space, you could try vertical planting! A beautiful way to do this is by creating a flower wall.
This backyard landscaping idea uses trellises and vining flowers to create a living wall. You’ll set up your trellis and plant your flowers underneath it. Then you’ll encourage the flowers to grow upwards on the trellis by wrapping their vines around it.
A wooden trellis would best give your flower wall a more natural look. And if you need flower ideas, wisteria is a stunning option. These plants produce eye-catching, draping purple flowers, and they’re aggressive climbers.
5. Use Statement Flowers
Creating a wow factor with statement flowers is always a great backyard landscaping idea. Think of some boldly-colored, oddly-shaped, or large flowers that you enjoy. You want something that’ll grab your guest’s attention when they walk into your backyard.
Flowers like sunflowers, hydrangeas, and hibiscus are great attention-grabbers.
Try planting these flowers near your back door so they greet your guests as they walk into your backyard. Or you could make beds full of statement flowers for a bright pop of color.
6. Floral Archway
If you don’t like the idea of a flower wall, you could incorporate a floral archway for an eye-catching entryway. Place your archway at your back door, at your backyard’s entrance, or in the middle of a garden. Whichever placement you choose, you and your guests will love admiring the beautiful vertical flowers. A floral archway also makes a great backdrop for pictures!
The process of making this backyard landscaping idea is similar to the flower wall. You’ll need to find a place for your garden archway and plant the flowers on either side. Guide them upward as they’re growing if needed. Climbing roses are a beautiful choice for something like this!
7. Flower Islands
If large flower beds aren’t something you want to do, you can try making flower islands. With this backyard landscaping idea, you can create small flower beds scattered throughout your backyard. Flower islands are like a subcategory of flower beds. They’re typically smaller than full bordering flower beds and provide spots of beauty throughout your backyard.
You can choose to plant one flower variety or multiple. And you can make the islands any shape you want. Popular options are squares and circles. But you can make other shapes like stars or freeform shapes that you brainstormed.
Creating patterns with the flowers could also be interesting. Customize these little islands to make your backyard stand out!
Foliage and Greenery Backyard Landscaping Ideas
8. Crevice Plants
Do you have large cracks or crevices on your patio or backyard? You’re probably thinking you should start filling those with dirt or some other filler. But that’s unnecessary, as you can turn those crevices into something beautiful with crevice plants!
Crevice plants are plants that can grow well in tight spaces. They make great fillers or additions to rock gardens. This backyard landscaping idea will turn even the ugliest of crevices into planters.
When choosing a crevice plant, you’ll typically want something that crawls along the ground. Upward-growing plants can become a tripping hazard, especially if planting them in stair crevices. Some great options are creeping phlox and English ivy. Phlox usually spreads rapidly, and ivy creates long vines that act as a living cover.
9. Lawn Alternatives
A grass alternative might be more your style if you’re struggling to grow a lawn or generally dislike grass. And you can expect lawn alternatives to be much softer than grass, as two popular options are clover and moss.
Lawn alternatives are a great backyard landscaping idea if you don’t have a green thumb. Using alternatives will nearly eliminate the need to cut your lawn because many options don’t grow that high.
Watering is almost always never needed as well. So you can enjoy the greenery without needing to tend to any maintenance requirements.
10. Raised Vegetable Garden Beds
Creating raised vegetable garden beds with wood from your local hardware store can give your backyard a rustic flare. You can also buy premade raised garden beds to make the process easier. All you need to do is set it up, fill it with soil, and plant your vegetable plants. This is something you can probably get done in one afternoon!
The plants will provide you with bright green foliage. Many vegetable plants also produce colorful blooms with hues of yellow and orange. And not only will the plants create a colorful, inviting atmosphere, but they’ll provide you with a delicious harvest.
Raised vegetable gardens could be perfect backyard landscaping ideas to replace flowers or work in tandem with them.
11. Short Hedge Maze
Most people opt for flower beds and decorative shrubs, as these are traditional landscaping methods. But are you looking for something outside the box? A short hedge maze might be the backyard landscaping idea you’re looking for!
To make a maze, you’ll need to start by marking off your design in your backyard. Then you can start digging and planting the hedge of your choice.
If you need an idea, boxwood hedges can make great maze borders. These hedge plants grow very slowly and typically reach a maximum height of four feet. So they’re relatively small, allowing you to see over the maze. And you can always trim them if they get too large for your liking.
The best part is that these plants keep their foliage in the winter. So you can enjoy your homemade maze even when it’s a little chilly.
12. Cypress Tree Privacy Fence
Sometimes it can be difficult to enjoy your backyard if you can see your neighbors from your patio. Sure, you could put up a fence. But fences can stick out like a sore thumb, making your backyard feel closed off. It almost feels like you’re stuck in a box, which is never relaxing or inviting. A cypress tree privacy fence might be a better option to prevent this.
This backyard landscaping idea involves planting cypress trees closely together in a line. Make the tree wall as long as you want. Measure your wall area before buying the trees. Doing this will help you determine how many trees you’ll need to get.
Cypress tree saplings are typically small when you first receive them. Which means you won’t have your wall immediately. But don’t let that scare you away, as they are fast growers and grow a few feet each year. You’ll have your privacy wall in no time!
Landscaping and Hardscaping Combinations
13. Garden Pathway
A pathway through flower beds or a vegetable garden is an easy backyard landscaping idea to liven up your yard. There are plenty of materials for you to utilize, including bricks, pavers, stepping stones, gravel, and much more. And luckily, it’s easy to create a pathway at home without professional help.
14. Rock and Cacti Garden
Not everyone has the luxury of living in an area where plants can thrive. High heat and dry conditions can make growing a garden a nightmare. But there are still gardening options, such as rock gardens, if you live in a hot and dry place.
A rock garden is exactly what it sounds like. It involves dirt, rocks, gravel, and drought-tolerant plants! Cacti and succulents are the most popular plant choices, as they can survive with little to no water. So you can expect them to stay green even in the driest and hottest times of the year. Some varieties will even grow flowers!
Rock gardens are easy to take care of, requiring little maintenance besides weeding. And they can stand up to almost any weather conditions. This backyard landscaping idea is a beautiful way to display plants and add contrasting textures to your space.
15. Living Canopy Over a Pergola
Many people have pergolas in their backyards, as they can provide shade on sunny days. But due to their slats, they don’t offer full coverage shade. If you have this issue, you can naturally create shade with vining plants!
Like the flower wall and archway ideas, you’ll place your vining plants at the base posts of your pergola. As they grow, guide them up the posts. Eventually, the vines will find their way to the top and begin covering your pergola.
It may take a few years to get full coverage. But the end result will be worth it. You’ll have a cooling canopy in no time!
Wisterias, roses, and ivy are excellent choices that could also work for this backyard landscaping idea.
Try Out Some of These Backyard Landscaping Ideas!
Landscaping is one of the best ways to enhance your backyard. But choosing ideas can be overwhelming, especially when you don’t know what you want. Hopefully, these backyard landscaping ideas inspired you and helped you get a head start!
Do you want more backyard inspiration and ideas? Look at our Backyard Living page to help you get started on your next outdoor project!