Gardening And Landscaping In The Backyard

If you’re fortunate enough to have a large back, or front, yard and enjoy gardening and landscaping but are overwhelmed by choices, here are some ideas to get you on your way to gardening and landscaping around your home.

HGTV To The Rescue!

In all seriousness, HGTV is a great place to get gardening and landscaping ideas, with shows like Landscaper’s Challenge. The basic concept of the show is that homeowners who are stumped about what to do with their derelict or non-existent yards get to choose from three landscape design plans by professional landscapers and landscape architects to redo their yards.

There have been some pretty impressive results, including a tropical backyard with a pool like one you’d find in a resort, various Asian-inspired backyards with a really nice Indonesian flair to Mediterranean-inspired gardens. Watching will give you some ideas about what you might like and what might fit into your home.

If the idea of gardening and landscaping on your own scares you off (and there is a lot of work involved if you want major landscaping), then do as the homeowners on Landscaper’s Challenge did. Consider hiring a professional who can come up with a landscape plan and implement it if you have the money and if the size of your yard warrants it.

In sort of a fun fact, given the popularity of the NBC show Heroes, fans might want to keep an eye out for the Landscaper’s Challenge episode featuring the backyard of Erick Avari, who plays the senior Professor Suresh on the series.

Water Gardens – In A Container!

If you’re set on having running water in your backyard, but either don’t have the space for a pond or lack the experience in building water features, consider starting off with a water garden in a container! It’s fairly simple to do and won’t take up much space at all. You’ll need a good-sized waterproof container, an aquarium pump to aerate the water, soil for some of the plants, and several smaller containers or blocks which you can position some of the plants on.

You can add plants such as the ubiquitous water lily, along with dwarf papyrus and miniature cattails, or even other floating plants if there’s room. If that scares you off, consider creating a simple bubbler. You can easily do a Google search for great ideas on plants for a container water garden and bubblers, and dip your feet into gardening and landscaping around your home.