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Decorate backyard on a budget


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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(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

20 simple ideas how to decorate the yard. Landscaping the courtyard of a private house

When a private house has already been built, it remains only to ennoble the territory itself. We will give you ideas on how to improve the courtyard of a private house and arrange a suburban area in an interesting, beautiful and at no extra cost.

How to create a beautiful yard with flower arrangements

Who among us will remain indifferent to flowers? Flowers are one of the simplest ways to give the yard bright colors and at the same time coziness. When it comes to decorating a yard, flowers are simply irreplaceable.

Everyone can plant flowers, making a bright composition out of them, but to make something more original, you need to show your imagination.

A floral motorcycle or a bicycle will look very unusual. I think for those who used to have such a "friend" problems with this should arise. There are two ways to make a flowerbed out of a bicycle:

We take this “miracle of technology” as a basis and cover horizontal and partially vertical surfaces with a mesh filled with nutrient soil.

We install ready-made planters. If you chose hanging planters for flowers with coconut flakes, then below, you can put a baby diaper so that the water does not immediately flow out when watering, but remains inside.

Next, proceed to decorating. In order to make the creation look more original, it is best to decorate it with climbing annuals, low ground cover flowers. In such bicycle beds live well:

If you are preparing for a flower show, you can cover the whole body of the bike with garden flowers. A flower arrangement will look very impressive if the flowers are of the same color.

It is very good to decorate a country house with curly flowers. To do this, you can use both the simplest, unpretentious plants, for example, morning glory or parthenocissus, as well as more noble flowers - climbing roses or clematis. These plants are able to create a real paradise in the suburban area.

Climbing roses can make your yard so full of flowers, especially if you pick climbing roses that bloom all summer.

Do not forget that even unnecessary old shoes can become an original decoration of the site. Take a pair of brightly colored children's rubber boots, make holes in the soles, fill them with drainage, then soil and plant flowers. You will get excellent garden pots for outdoor flowers. And it is especially pleasant that we decorate the yard with our own hands at no extra cost.

To make an original garden flower pot, you can use not only shoes, but also old broken jugs, garden watering cans, old kitchen utensils, basins, buckets, tubs, wheelbarrows, tubs, barrels.

You can also make beautiful garden beds with your own hands in old stumps. They are very simple and elegant. Such decoration of the yard with your own hands can be seasonal if you plant tulips in stumps

Old logs will help us a lot to decorate the patio in the country. If there are rotten logs, then you can gouge a hole in them, lay the ground and create a beautiful flower arrangement.

Trimming

Another good way to make a beautiful yard and spice up your yard is to give your bushes an unusual shape. This technique is very often used by experienced owners of country houses, creating stunning topiaries and a beautiful courtyard of a private house.

Some of them even manage to turn their yard into a real zoo by cutting out figures of different animals with pruners, which enliven the yard of a private house.

Beginners in this art are advised to start with something simpler first.

A waterfall, a fountain, a pool are the main decorations of the yard in the summer season

If you are thinking about how to improve the yard of a private house with your own hands, then be sure to create a fountain or a pond in a suburban area. How nice it will be to be near the water in the summer heat.

Water splashes from the fountain will protect the plants from dryness, and the pool will become a real salvation from the sun's rays, especially children who love to splash in the water will be especially happy with it.

Looking at the waterfall, you imagine yourself somewhere far from home. Landscaping the courtyard of a private house with even the smallest fountain is very relaxing.

It is very easy to make such beauty your own. Surely, after construction, many will find pieces of tiles, tiles, stones. River stones will look more realistic.

A fountain installed deep in the garden will look very harmonious. You can also put benches and swings for children there. Thus, the garden will turn into a real park where the whole family can relax and the arrangement of the yard will be completed.

Stone garden - beautiful and mysterious

For those who want to stand out, we offer to make a stone garden on their backyard. It can consist only of stones and sand, but it is better to dilute it with different flowers, green plants, as well as a small pond or waterfall. This is a very unusual yard decoration.

Stone elements can be used as path decoration. Stones or bricks can be used to make incredibly cozy recreation areas - patios that can decorate any courtyard of a private house.

From all this, we can conclude that if you have at least some skills in working on the ground and show imagination, you can turn an ordinary yard into a work of art!

Arbor in the courtyard of a private house

One of the most essential things in decorating the yard of a private house with your own hands is a gazebo. Arbors can be different - open, closed, attached to the house. It can be awnings and tents, tents.

The most practical do-it-yourself gazebos in the yard of a private house are made of polycarbonate.

The most romantic pavilions in the yard are tents with fluttering fabrics and a lot of beautiful garden furniture. Landscaping the courtyard of a private house with such a tent is one of the most enjoyable activities!

The classic layout of the courtyard of a private house usually includes a wooden gazebo, with carved elements. Equipping the courtyard of a private house with the help of a gazebo is as easy as shelling pears!

Source

How to decorate the yard with your own hands using improvised materials: photos and ideas

Hello dear friends!

Today we will share with you a lot of interesting ideas for decorating the local area in the garden. And first of all, we will talk, of course, about simple budget solutions using affordable, and sometimes completely junk materials that can be found in any summer cottage.

How can you decorate the yard with your own hands? Yes, just be creative, and with examples for inspiration, we will help you!

Contents

  1. Interesting DIY crafts from improvised materials
  2. Tires: 15 ideas for a country yard
  3. Pallets: how to assemble garden furniture quickly and inexpensively
  4. Wooden boxes - looking for a use!
  5. Glass and plastic bottles: collecting empty containers!
  6. Cinder blocks: mobile and laconic solutions
  7. Gabions in summer cottage decorations - aesthetics and style
  8. Interior items and country utensils in flower arrangements
  9. Just tough!
  10. Old trees: do not rush to cut for firewood!
  11. Guests are coming: festive illuminations

Interesting DIY crafts from improvised materials

Decorating the entrance area of ​​a private house and the yard itself is a creative and extremely exciting thing. Depending on the area of ​​the site, the courtyard itself can be divided into several functional zones.

In the backyard, it is appropriate to organize a cozy relaxation area with a barbecue for receiving guests, a cozy patio or a playground. The front part of the house with the territory adjacent to it suggests a lot of options, and you can decorate it to your own taste with the most modest budget using inexpensive improvised materials.

For example, take garden paths, the main criterion of which is not only their functionality. The aesthetic side of the issue also plays an important role here.

See also:

Cobbled with wild stone and concreted using ready-made forms for concrete paths, mosaic, wood or decorated with river pebbles - whichever method of decoration you choose, this is your personal contribution to the arrangement of your own possessions.

So, let's start our photo excursion dedicated to the man-made design of the yard in the territory entrusted to us.

Tires: 15 patio ideas

If you think that old tires are only good for creating flower beds and flower pots, then this is not true. And we will start, perhaps, with garden furniture.

The versatile shape of tires and their resilient material are perfect for making improvised upholstered furniture. Comfortable stools, bar stools and sofas, original armchairs and cozy pouffes are great for seasonal use in the yard of a private house.

Modular rubber kits are easy to assemble and dismantle, and getting enough seats for the arrival of guests will not be a big deal. Just create a small strategic stock of tires, and store it in the attic.

Garage style - for connoisseurs of functional minimalism, giving a lot of opportunities to unleash your creative potential!

In addition to furniture fantasies, it also inspires numerous playground ideas. For example, a swing, which will certainly delight the underage population in the summer cottage.

Pallets: how to assemble garden furniture quickly and inexpensively

In our country blog, we have already published a separate post on a very unusual area of ​​application of building pallets. Here you can enjoy bright non-standard solutions and an inspiring scope of design ideas. Would you like to be armed? Yes, to health!

See also:

Needless to say, wooden pallets are a convenient, inexpensive and practical material! With it, you can quickly and easily assemble any modular set of garden furniture, which is easily transformed and installed in the right place in a matter of minutes. An excellent choice for decorating the yard and organizing a comfortable recreation area at minimal cost.

Wooden boxes - looking for a use!

It would seem that what ordinary wooden boxes can do, except for storing apples and potatoes? This is an amateurish view of a city dweller, but not our resourceful and jack-of-all-trades master brother-dacha resident!

If you leave aside the utilitarian purpose of these ordinary structures and apply a little imagination, you can build a lot of things out of them. For example, here are some cute crafts that you will not be ashamed to decorate your garden and yard with.

Glass and plastic bottles: collecting empty containers!

This more than affordable material is the absolute champion in its use in summer cottages. With a certain ingenuity, empty plastic containers can serve not only for growing seedlings and drip irrigation devices, but also for decorative purposes.

Glass bottles can be used to decorate the borders of flower beds, flower beds and garden paths. Or here is such an airy impromptu screen that delimits the recreation area in the courtyard of the house.

And with a little work and glasswork skills, you will get wonderful lamps, bird feeders and original hanging vessels for growing flowers.

Cinder blocks: mobile and uncluttered solutions

A few extra cinder blocks left after building a garage? Yes, it's just luck! Take a look at the photo, there is a reason to build a light garden bench or a comfortable ottoman for a summer cottage. All you need is a few rocks and wooden slats to sit on, while foam mats and soft cushions help soften the hard surface.

How to create a spectacular flower arrangement out of the blue? Elementary! Located near the fence in the yard or a free-standing cinder block structure is a great solution for those who prefer strict laconicism in the design of the surrounding space.

Gabions in country decorations - aesthetics and style

We will not talk about the decorative role of gabions in modern landscape design for a long time - I wrote a separate article about this, and in general there is more than enough information on this subject on the Internet.

The use of these mesh structures, filled with a wide variety of materials - pebbles, rubble, crushed stone and even glass bottles, allows you to create a lot of useful and decorative structures on the garden plot.

Gabions are used for fast construction of fences and partitions, decoration of reservoirs, flower beds and various architectural elements. In the courtyard of the house with the help of this design, you can equip a recreation area with a barbecue grill or a cozy place for relaxation with a small pond or fountain.

Furnishings and outdoor utensils in floral arrangements

A shady landscaped garden and a rustic-style house require appropriate decoration. Cute and original floral arrangements using old baguette frames, a wooden stepladder and even chairs that have come out of circulation will organically fit into a given theme.

An old wooden barrel as a planter, a birdcage with textured succulents planted in it, or improvised ampel structures can transform your yard in the most unexpected way.

Just tough!

And a few more touches to the portrait of your country house. Do not rush to scrap leaky tin troughs, watering cans, basins and buckets, they will still serve you!

With a little creative effort, your yard can have a retro fountain or an unusual accent that draws attention to a flower bed set up in the front garden.

Learn more