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Cheap backyard upgrades


Backyard ideas on a budget: Create an outdoor retreat for less

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(Image credit: Grit and Polish)

Are you searching for backyard ideas on a budget? You are not alone. For anyone who lives in a metropolitan flat or tiny cottage, a backyard seems like a luxury – one that requires time, energy, and, above all else, money to maintain. 

But, while an outdoor space is a great bonus to any beautiful home, it doesn’t have to cost you a small fortune. 

Need proof? Have a look at these innovative yet cheap backyard ideas, all of which are beautiful too. Turns out, all you really need to have a gorgeous garden space is time, elbow grease and some creativity.

Backyard ideas on a budget

Our beautiful but cheap backyard ideas will inspire you to update your space and create your ideal outdoor retreat, whatever your style and budget.

1. Create a vegetable garden

(Image credit: Rocky Hedge Farm)

If you’re looking for a budget-conscious backyard idea that will also allow you to save money on your grocery bill, consider adding some raised garden beds to your space.

The beauty of raised beds is that they can be tailored to your specific size requirements, meaning that a vegetable garden can be fitted into even awkwardly shaped spaces and easily integrated into small backyard ideas.

Sarah Blankenship, the blogger behind Rocky Hedge Farm , created several in her yard with a few wooden planks. Once you’ve constructed the raised beds, fill each one with soil and seeds for a homemade vegetable garden.

2. Add an arbor

(Image credit: Farmhouse on Boone)

Another way to dress up your backyard is with an arbor, perhaps incorporated into your garden fence ideas like in this yard's design. This garden detail can add a whimsical charm to your garden, plus it might discourage critters and nosy neighbors from infiltrating your space.  

An arbor might look like a fancy feature, but Lisa Bass from Farmhouse on Boone proves it can be an affordable undertaking. Once you invest in a drill and saw, all you need is some planks of wood, screws, and a fresh coat of paint.

3. Add interest to your patio – on a budget

(Image credit: Hayley Stuart )

Whether you’re curling up with a good book, enjoying a meal al fresco, or simply admiring your garden, a patio never fails to offer an excellent vantage point. But, if you're looking for some fresh patio ideas, consider stenciling a cool design on the floor. 

Not only is this an easy project that can be completed in a weekend, but it can also be done for a fair, affordable price. Let blogger Hayley Stuart show you how it’s done.

4. Build your deck from the ground up

(Image credit: I Spy DIY )

Or, if you don’t have a deck or patio in your backyard, you can always build one from scratch. 

Admittedly, this budget-friendly backyard requires time and a close attention to detail. In fact, levelling a sloped backyard can take a few days. But, as this final product from home decor blog I Spy DIY proves, the results are so worth it.

5. Give your small garden the textured treatment

(Image credit: The Grit and Polish)

Want to make a patio from scratch, but not willing to put in that much elbow grease? This patio refresh from the Grit and Polish offers the best of both worlds, making it the perfect backyard idea on a budget.

Here, husband-wife duo Garrett and Cathy used pea gravel to landscape a backyard with visual and textural distinction from the rest of their grassy plot. For a makeshift patio, the couple covered a portion of the gravel with large pavers.

6. Make a splash with a stock pool

(Image credit: Emerson Grey Designs)

Pool ideas offer endless fun and for many they are a backyard staple. However, building a pool can get expensive. If you’re looking to make a splash for less, add a stock pool a la Bri Moysa of Emerson Grey Designs .  

The designer accessorized a stock tank with homemade steps, tropical plants, and a fresh coat of black paint to make it feel like an intentional addition to the backyard, not an afterthought.

7. Introduce solar garden lighting 

(Image credit: Sugar Maple Notes)

A few strands of twinkling lights are an easy, affordable way to add some style to your backyard. But, unless you have a few trees to hang them from, you might be out of luck. 

Fortunately, this idea from Sugar Maple Notes is a good one, creating clever backyard ideas on a budget by using a planter as a base for a post to drape string lights from. Not only aesthetically pleasing, solar garden lighting ideas will also save energy and keep costs down.

'Our DIY planter posts project is so simple, yet makes a big impact in our backyard,' explains blogger Sarah Harmsen. 'The string lights add just the right amount of twinkle to our patio – much needed for summer evenings on the porch.' 

8.

Set up a spot for outdoor lounging – and garden shade

(Image credit: Future)

A cooling spot for relaxing, entertaining or designed purely as a retreat will make your backyard a joy to use all day long. Think about a planning a shade garden that includes multi-sensory experiences of sight, sound and scent – all that's needed is some draping fabric, wooden posts and a bit of creativity.

If your budget allows, invest in a small pond or water fountain. The trickling water will feel cooling and add a relaxing soundscape to your sensory garden.

9. Enhance a sense of garden privacy

(Image credit: Diana Elizabeth)

For a backyard ideas on a budget that are both affordable and space-efficient, consider decking out your privacy fence.   

'Because of the small footprint, we decided to use vertical garden ideas – and add plants in unique vessels on the fences,' explains Penny D. Francis, designer and owner of Eclectic Home . 

'Half -round brass wall vessels were perfect for the succulents. We created a planter made from white oak that extended the length of the fence that also doubled as a bench for guests.' 

The result? A small yard that doesn’t sacrifice style.

10. Defy gravity with a trellis 

(Image credit: Eclectic Home)

Speaking of your privacy fence, you can also spruce up often overlooked fence or garden walls with a DIY trellis. 

Blogger Diana Elizabeth used floral wire to create a diamond-shaped trellis on her wall, allowing her jasmine plants to reach new heights. It’s a budget-conscious idea that can appeal to all of the senses.

Kelsey Mulvey is a New York-born, San Francisco-based freelance journalist who covers lifestyle and design content. She started her writing career while studying magazine journalism at Boston University, where her work was syndicated by top digital publications like USA Today and MSN. Upon graduation, Kelsey covered lifestyle content The Wall Street Journal, Off Duty and Business Insider. In 2017, Kelsey started her freelance journalism career, where she contributes to design publications like AD PRO, Elle Decor, Wallpaper*, and more. W

37 Backyard Ideas on a Budget

By

Farima Ferguson

Farima Ferguson

Farima Ferguson began her career at HGTV where she worked with designers to write about home design. Her work has appeared in HGTV, Insider Reviews, Travel Channel, and more.

Learn more about The Spruce's Editorial Process

Updated on 08/23/21

@ohsokel / Instagram

If you want to spend more time in your backyard, you'll want to upgrade your outdoor space into a place your whole family will love. But, you don't need to spend a lot of money sprucing up your backyard. From garden ideas to outdoor entertaining, we share 37 budget-friendly ways to update your backyard.

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Three stories of modernization in the data center / Habr

Hello, Habr! This year marks 10 years since our first OST-1 data center was launched. During this time, my colleagues from the operation and capital construction service managed to carry out more than one modernization of the engineering infrastructure of the data center. Today I will tell you about the most interesting cases.

200 tonne crane mounting new Stulz chiller on frame. Modernization of the cooling system of the OST-1 data center system in 2015.

The data center is a living organism, it grows, changes, breaks :) Everything that can be attributed to modernization, I conditionally divide into:

I will not dwell on planned replacements / repairs. Almost everything is in our power. I'll tell you three stories about design mistakes and post-accident upgrades.

Story 1. The engine room lacked cold

This is a story about one of our first halls on Borovaya. He is still working. Hall with a design capacity of 80 racks of 5 kW.

As the hall filled up, the cold was no longer enough: the temperature in the cold corridors was higher than necessary, local overheating constantly occurred. It was only later, from the height of our experience, we realized that we had made mistakes in the design, and because of this, the air conditioning suffered.

Error
Problem
Long row of posts - more than 20 in a row
Hot air stagnated in the middle of row
Low ceilings - up to 3 meters
Insufficient space for proper air exchange. Zones of local overheating occurred
Low raised floor with many utilities underneath
Interference for cold air circulation under the raised floor


The row is so long that the air conditioners at the opposite end are barely visible. Photo 2009.

We did not see any “magic pill” for these problems then, so we decided to act in stages and on all fronts.

First we checked if all the equipment is installed correctly and if there are stubs in free units. We also double-checked the layout of the perforated tiles and removed the extra ones, installed additional air guides under the raised floor. We tried to find and close up all the holes where cold air could escape. I advise you to also check what you have between the air conditioner and the wall. A gap of 5-7 cm is already a lot.


This is the result of simply placing stubs in free units.

Better, but not good enough. Then we decided to isolate the cold corridors. We built a roof, polycarbonate doors. It turned out cheap and cheerful. As a result, we got rid of the parasitic mixing of hot and cold air and increased the efficiency of the refrigeration system.


Isolated cold corridor of the same room.

We knew that this would not last long. As the IT load grows, the lack of capacity will again make itself felt.

An attempt was made to solve this problem by adding a freon air conditioner, although the hall was running on glycol cooling. We were very concerned about the dimensions of the air conditioner (whether it would fit through the door, whether the angle of rotation would be enough), so we selected a model with the possibility of partial disassembly. The air conditioner was installed not from the side of the hot corridor, as is usually done, but where they could squeeze it in. This added 80 kilowatts of cooling to us.


This is Emerson's gutta-percha conditioner.

This whole story turned out to be difficult: it was necessary to figure out how to bring freon lines to the external units, how to supply electricity to these air conditioners, where to put the external units of the air conditioner. All this in a working room.


Just to show how little space there is.

After all these manipulations, we got rid of local overheating, the temperature was distributed evenly in cold and hot corridors. It turned out to increase the capacity of the hall and place the declared five-kilowatt racks in it.

The moral of this story is that you should not be afraid to solve problems in small steps. In itself, each of the actions may seem (and it seemed to us then) ineffective, but in total it gives a result.

Story 2. Air-conditioning and power supply ended in the machine room

A machine room for 100 racks of 5 kW each was designed for the client. The design width of the rack is 800 mm, each row has 10 racks. Then the client changed his mind to call in, and the hall was rented out on a common basis. In life, racks with a width of 800 mm are needed mainly for network equipment, for everything else, six hundredths are needed. As a result, instead of 10 racks in a row, we got 13, and there was still room. But electricity and cold were no longer enough.

During the modernization, a new room was allocated for two additional 300 kW UPSs.

Additional switchboards appeared in the hall.

The new power had to be distributed evenly. To separate the new and old beams, separate cable trays were laid under the raised floor. Part of the operating IT equipment was switched to new switchboards by switching each power beam in turn.

To solve the problem with the lack of cold, we installed 1 additional air conditioner per 100 kW of cold.

During the rigging, installation and commissioning of all equipment, the hall continued to operate normally. This was the most difficult moment in the project.

As a result of the modernization, we added electricity and cooling to the hall for another 30 racks of 5 kW each.


Design capacity and hall capacity increased by 30%.

Story 3. About the replacement of chillers

A little background. It all started in 2010, when 3 chillers in the OST data center were badly damaged during a hurricane. Then, in order to survive, we had to drive chillers without protection for several days, and the compressors quickly died. First they changed.

The IT load grew as the data center filled up, and the Emicon chillers never reached their advertised cooling capacity. In 2012, an additional Hiref chiller was added to the same hydraulic circuit. So we lived for another three years.

Over the years, Emicon chillers have had operational problems. Their power was not enough, so in the heat they had to be watered with water from Karchers. Over the years, the heat exchangers have become overgrown with lime deposits. Poplar fluff and other debris were stuffed into the gap between the freecooling heat exchanger and the freon condenser, which cannot be removed due to the specific structure of the heat exchangers. A real felt boot was formed there, which did not allow air to pass normally.

In 2015, we just purchased a batch of Stulz chillers for NORD-4. We decided to replace two of the three Emicon chillers for this case. Now the details.

Installation of an additional Hiref chiller without additional pumps. The IT load was growing while the efficiency of chillers affected by the hurricane was declining. In the summer, the reserve was barely enough. We decided to add another chiller to increase their total capacity. During the work, the refrigeration system had to continue to function. The most difficult thing in this operation is the organization of the glycol circuit. We made a glycol piping: a glycol ring was taken from each chiller to a new chiller. The chillers were decommissioned one by one, and a glycol pipe was brought to the new chiller.


Fragment of hydraulic circuit diagram. It shows that branches were made from each of the three chillers to a new chiller.

The main task of this chiller is to support the cooling system in summer. Thanks to Hiref, we now have an N+1 guaranteed reserve during the hot months. But the chillers damaged in the hurricane slowly began to die, and we had to think about replacing them.


The same "summer" Hiref chiller.

Replacement of Emicon with Stulz. It is better to do such replacements in autumn or spring: in summer without a reserve it is absolutely scary, and in winter it is simply unpleasant to carry out work. The operation was scheduled for February / March, but preparations began in October.

During these preparatory months, we laid new cables, welded pipeline sections, developed a plan for the entrance of a car with equipment (we have a crowded backyard), and cleared the area for a crane access. Chillers had to be changed in a working data center, and for about 1.5 days it was left without a backup chiller. During the preparation phase, we conducted tests to understand how the data center would feel without backup, came up with various situations where something could go wrong during work (for example, a long blackout during the replacement of chillers), and developed an action plan . Here is a brief chronicle of those works.
The chiller arrived at night. After the successful arrival of the crane on the territory of the data center, it was possible to start turning off the old chiller.


The old chiller is still in place while preparations are being made. Cooking a frame for a new chiller.

Then a car with a chiller had to drive up to the immediate place of work. It's a little tight there, to put it mildly. I had to work hard to fit into all those difficult turns in a limited space.

The disassembled and cut in half chiller was dismantled.

The old and new chiller are different in size. It took some more time to prepare the metal frame. The matter remained for the rise and installation of the chiller.

In the background of the photo you can see that sections of the glycol circuit for the new chiller are being welded in parallel.

After installation, all hydraulics are mounted on the frame, the chiller is connected to the power supply. Pressing is done at night. The next day, commissioning and connection to the monitoring system takes place.

The whole operation took less than two days: in the morning the old chiller was turned off, at the end of the next day the new chiller was turned on.

The second chiller was changed after two weeks. It would seem that it was just necessary to do everything according to the worked out scheme, but something went wrong. It snowed all night. First, I had to spend time clearing the area so that the crane could call in. We began to dismantle the old chiller, as a car with a new chiller breaks down two hundred meters from us. The point of no return has already been passed, and the swivel mechanism of the trailer wheels (the control panel from it) has broken at the truck.

It was not possible to repair it on the spot, we went for an additional remote control, which miraculously ended up in the office of this company on Saturday. With the remote control, we managed to spin the car. As a result, it took us more than 3 hours to complete one turn. With all the logistical overlays, the work stretched into the night. It's good that we thought over the lighting for work in the dark. The rest of the work went on as usual, and since Monday another new chiller has been launched in the data center.

In March this year, my colleagues replaced the third chiller, the last one to survive the hurricane. Three Stulz chillers and one Hiref are now operating at Borovaya. Thanks to such a phased modernization, we now have a large margin for cold, and we are not afraid of the hottest weather and poplar fluff. The new chillers support free-cooling over a larger temperature range, consume less energy and operate very quietly. They are also very convenient to maintain due to separate compressor compartments: repairs can be carried out without completely stopping the chiller.

My consistently awkward yard...: live_report — LiveJournal

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Original taken from skaznov in My consistently clumsy yard. ..


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