If you ask me the bane of living in a new suburban subdivision is the lack of yard space. Around here the average yard size varies from 0.16 -0.2 acres. Ours is slightly bigger but the way house is set we lose most of our yard to the front, which of course is dotted with the huge green electrical box, a fire hydrant, and the neighbor’s mailbox (yes really, it is inside our property line!). Out back our yard slops down away from the house into a protected wetland area (mainly small bushes) which in turn faces an elevated neighborhood street. So you get the picture, we have ZERO privacy! Though we are not planning to work on the backyard any time soon I thought it would be fun to take a look at all the possibilities.
Enter the wonder site, Houzz. I was specifically looking for yards comparable to ours in terms of size and where there was at least some green. B’s pet peeve about adding landscaping in the back is that our son won’t have place to hit a ball or practice his catches. I do see his point but a slopping yard is not the best place to practice baseball. Plus their school’s baseball field is within a stone’s throw away from our house. I mean, if the dad and son duo wanted to get some practice can’t they just walk over to the field?
The yard below has a little bit of everything; outdoor entertaining, grass, garden/landscaping, even a fire pit.
This one too is along the same lines.
If you have a row house with a long rectangular piece of yard then this plan might work for you. If you love to mow you could convert the second seating area into a patch of green.
Here’s one catered to everyone adults, kids, and pets. Everyone gets to enjoy the yard to the fullest.
Another simple clean lined modern yard….
Notice, the pattern in all of these pics? All of them as well as most of the small yard pics you would find on Google have a stone patio and not a deck. In small yards, patios give the illusion of more space and make for an easy transition from the outdoor entertaining area to the natural elements of the yard.
Someone at home just doesn’t get the point! B was all worked up about the transition from the inside living area of the home to the outdoors. To him, stepping down to a stone patio (we have a semi walk out basement, so we might have needed 5 or 6 steps) would take away from the visual feel of the outdoor area when viewed from the inside! So deck it was! In all fairness I do like the deck but now we have a totally dead space (under the deck) that we have to maintain (read mulch) every year! If only I had seen this pic before we built the deck!
Wait, we have a public golf course just 5 mins down the road from us….so……. 🙁 At least that would have got me my stone patio!
What is your yard like? Where do you stand on the deck/patio issue?
Patio, for sure. We’ve had both, and the deck needed to be sanded and stained every 2 years. What a backbreaking pia! The patio gets blown by the landscaper every week, and power washed practically never. It’s patio for me — not even close.
Ours is trex deck but I’ve manged to spray paint that too in areas! So gotta power wash and such. 🙁
We don’t have a very large backyard either, but we’ve found that one of the things that makes it look much larger is to have a winding slate walkway. If you combine that with different sized shrubs, it will give the eye more places to focus and give the illusion of size and depth:)
Maude
That’s a great idea Maude. Very true about guiding the eye around.
Vidya