Nice Home Live

The outdoor area is a palette for home owners. There’s a lot you can do to create your own personal paradise, and you can have a lot of fun doing it. You don’t have to be a great gardener or a handyman to make your outdoor space a joy. Pergolas, some basic no-dig gardening, and your own tastes will do the job.

Photo: UGArdener

Basic designs for outdoor spaces

A simple layout is usually the best, most reliable structure for any outdoor space. You shouldn’t even need to spend a lot of money, just add a few features and build on to your design.

For example:

• Verandas: These are good, all purpose structures which provide a semi-enclosed living space, and they’re easy to install. There are different designs of verandas, such as pergolas and gazebos, available in the market for you to choose the format that best suits your lifestyle and budget. You can add trellises with climbing roses, bougainvilleas, ivies, take your pick, and you’ve got a ready made outdoor comfort zone.
• Pot plants: The original no-fuss form of outdoor gardening, a few big pots with things like ornamental bamboo, ficus, pot roses or hanging baskets create a beautiful space instantly. These features also don’t compete with your garden bed plants, and can be used to create some great designs for patios. (Note: If you get the best self watering pots, these plants are also extremely low maintenance, and can be easily fed with some seaweed mulch extract, a bottle of which can last for years.)
• Raised garden beds: The gardener’s favorite no-fuss way of creating gardens can be constructed anywhere, almost immediately, without much, if any, cash outlay.
• Features: Many outdoor spaces have their own special features, and this is the area where you can get really creative. Small fountains, fish ponds, special trees, and other features are great fun.

Photo: daftgirly

Case study:

A medium back yard, no trees, just a fence and some lawn in reasonable condition.

The steps to creating a great rest and recreation area are easy:

• The owners install a wooden frame pergola with trestles on the sides.
• A sand bedded, tiled area is created in the pergola area.

• A simple raised garden bed is constructed on the two sides, using stone borders and good soil with mulch is added. (No digging involved, just prepare the ground with sand for drainage, add frames and add soil.)
• Climbing roses are planted on the trellis sides of the pergola.
• A few Chinese pines (one of the typical small Chinese landscape trees, very ornamental, with many shapes as it matures) are planted.
• A rockery is constructed using selected stones around the pines.
• Big roses like Queen Elizabeths are planted at strategic places around the middle of the back yard, and surrounded by stone.
• A few special pieces of cane furniture and some hardwood ornaments are added to the pergola.
• Hanging baskets of pot roses are placed around the front of the pergola, after deciding what’s needed.

This type of outdoor space, which is entirely based on personal taste, costs very little to create, even when you’re buying everything retail. There’s almost no limit to what you can add to this simple layout.