How to Beautify Your Backyard on a Budget
Whether you’re a Floridian who’s just moved into a home with an uninspiring backyard, or you’ve been living in the same house for years and are looking for some new inspiration, this guide is for you! There are plenty of ways to add some pizzazz to your backyard without breaking the bank. Read on for our top tips.
Revitalizing Designated Areas
The best place to start is planning and revitalizing what you already have in your landscape. Plan out how you’d like to use each section of your yard and decide what you’ll keep for plantings and grassy areas and mature trees etc. Whether you’re starting with a blank slate, or you need to tidy-up your flower beds and spotty grass areas, take time to groom, weed, trim, and reshape your landscape. It’s amazing what an under used landscape can grow into if you’re not up-keeping and cutting back plantings. Once you’ve trimmed trees and cut back overrun bushes, planted new grassy areas, and weeded out the flower’s beds, you’ll be able to start planning how to dress up and beautify your backyard on a budget!
DIY Alternative – The best thing you can DIY is to edge all flower beds and tree surrounds and borders with a nice fresh dig between your beds and the grass. Adding some bark mulch makes such a difference to your landscape you’ll be very inspired to get planting and furnishing your new digs! (pun intended!)
Get Creative with Your Planting
If you want your backyard to look lush and vibrant, then plants are your best bet. There are tons of ways you can get creative with your planting, from creating bold focal points like rock gardens or raised flower beds, to simply adding a few potted plants around the perimeter of your yard. You don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy plants either; annuals can be quite affordable and will provide you with lots of color during their bloom-time. Planting perennials is a great investment for border gardens as they come back every year and have a 2-3 week blooming season once a year. When choosing your border bed perennials, know their season for blooming and plant other bushes or different blooming season plants accordingly so that something is always in bloom.
DIY Alternative – If you really want the most bang for your buck when it comes to adding flowers to your garden, then start with seeds in the early spring season. You can have a huge variety of annuals to plant at a fractions of the costs. Every time you to buy plants from the nursery, save all the plastic containers to reuse for creating your own mix of flowers for hanging planters. And when you by flats of annuals, save those for next years seedlings. Not only is it budget friendly, but it’s also very rewarding and a stress buster to garden and enjoy the serene landscape that you curated.
Change Up The Lighting
Outdoor lighting doesn’t have to be expensive either. Simple string lights hung up between trees or above doors can add so much ambience and charm – it’s amazing how much impact they can have on your outdoor space! Plus, they come in all sorts of styles and colors so you can find something that perfectly fits the vibe of your backyard oasis. From traditional plug in lights to solar lights, it really does create ambiance when the sun goes down, and you can still enjoy your outdoor space.
DIY Alternative- If you really want to light up your backyard, but don’t have a budget to go and purchase lighting for the entire space. Think outside the box about lights you may already have that you use for holidays that are packed away for the summer season. You may already have a string of white lights for the tree trimming, or do you have some purple or orange lights from the fall decorating? Perhaps you have some table lamps in the house that you don’t use often, and they can come outside under a protected roof. Have fun repurposing old lights, and just make sure they are designed to withstand outdoor weather conditions.
Another alternative is to repurpose old clear jars from jam or pasta sauce and use them as tea light candle holders outside. Even better, purchase some citronella candles and take care of the pesky bugs and light up your outdoor space.
Put Down A Patio
Adding a patio is one of the most effective ways to spruce up any backyard, but it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg either! Consider laying down pavers instead of concrete (they tend to be cheaper) or opting for composite decking materials which are much easier to maintain than real wood but still look great. Adding a designated area can really make it feel like an outdoor room. Check on craiglist.org under free and you may find someone giving away old pavers or bricks. Even if there isn’t enough to fill the entire area, you can collect enough free pavers and eventually make a fun pattern or a border surrounding the area with another material like bricks.
DIY Alternative- Designating an area for outdoor furniture or just a fire pit area doesn’t necessarily have to be a patio made with concrete or pavers, it just needs to be a designated area, right? If you don’t mind a little labor you can dig up a square or rectangular area free of grass, roots, rocks etc. You can have some crushed stones delivered to fill in the area. Or you can just leave it as dirt and set up your fire pit made from larger rocks or have your picnic table and BBQ grill in the area. Add some flowers pots around the corners to cozy up your hang out area.
Add Some Fun Furniture & Accessories
Investing in quality furniture is essential if you plan on spending lots of time outside enjoying the weather. Think about how you want to use your backyard and add furniture to suit your needs. Whether you want to use several designated areas or just one larger section to include all your furniture think ahead as furniture sets can be pricey. If you plan to entertain with having a BBQ, then you’ll want to have a dining table and chairs or picnic tables. Or maybe you just want some comfortable couches or chairs to just relax and have some drinks while enjoying a fire pit. Whatever you choose, fun furniture is necessary for having guests and enjoying your outdoor space.
DIY Alternative- There are plenty of affordable options out there that won’t break the bank too much! You could even get creative and repurpose old furniture pieces; paint them up in bright colors, add some cushions, and voila – instant transformation! Again, checking craigslist.org for free furniture that can be refinished with some paint can be costs saving. Also, there are plenty of ways to utilize free wood pallets that businesses put out to the curb. From building complete L-shaped sectionals, to planter boxes, free pallets can be transformed with a little imagination. They can be painted for outdoor use and then you just have to add top wood for seating and adding some cushions and pillows. Add some accessories like outdoor rugs, potted plants to complete your entertaining area.
Conclusion
There you have it – five easy tips on how to beautify your Florida backyard without breaking the bank! From getting creative with planting options right through to investing in colorful accessories – these tips should help breathe new life into any outdoor area while still being cost effective too! So, get out there and start digging around, and getting creative – before long, you’ll be able enjoy lounging around in an oasis full of beauty without feeling guilty about spending too much money!