Brilliant ways to spruce up your backyard this summer

Whether it’s a deck or stone patio or even a patch of grass, defining a place to gather is a must, even for small backyard designs. A platform deck, such as the one shown here, can be created in just three days. Since it’s not connected to a house and sits just centimetres above the ground, it’s an inexpensive, quick-to-build alternative to standard decks and patios.

Learn more about how to plan and build a deck.

When you don’t have much yard space, digging up the lawn to create landscape beds and borders is less than desirable. Instead of sacrificing precious ground, landscape with potted plants. You can experiment with container shape, colour and placement, as well as the plant mixtures.

Here are 14 more smart small yard landscaping ideas.

Ever wish you could reorganise your garden after seeing how the mature plants look? Here’s a clever way to do it. You’ll need a bunch of landscape pots of the same size, so they’ll nest in each other. Put your plants in doubled landscape pots, and then bury them at ground level. Whenever you want a change, lift out the top pot and put in a different one. This is also really slick for bringing plants indoors over the winter. This method is great for quickly changing out seasonal plants, and allows for easy experimentation with colour and placement of plants and flowers.

A fire pit is the perfect place to sit with friends on a warm summer evening. It takes any backyard party from day to night in a snap. You can build a fire pit for not much more than the cost of a flimsy store-bought fire ring.

This classic garden arch has just six parts and can be built in less than a day. Create a gateway, frame a walkway in a hedge, or make it part of a trellis or pergola. This DIY garden arbour will perk up your outdoor decor.

If you water the lawn frequently and for short periods, the grassroots have no reason to grow deep. Those shallow roots can’t reach deep soil nutrients or deliver the water when you skip a watering. Instead, water deeply enough to penetrate the soil 10 to 15cm. Do our little test for a few waterings and you’ll get a sense of just how long and often. It’ll depend entirely on weather conditions and your soil type.

Water for 30 minutes. Then plunge a spade into the soil and pry out a wedge to see how far the water has penetrated. Not deep enough? Water longer. Once you know how long to water, use a water timer and you’ll know what to set it for every time.

Heavy soils should be watered less often and less heavily but for longer periods of time. Sandy soils, on the other hand, can handle heavy, fast watering but dry out faster. In hot, dry weather, you may have to water every two to three days.

Here are 12 things you should never do to your lawn.

There’s nothing quite like the twinkle of outdoor lighting on a cool summer night. String lights are one outdoor lighting option that really up the ambiance. String lights come in many different shapes and colours. Some plug into a power source, while others use batteries or solar power.

As you incorporate gathering places, gardens and other backyard landscaping ideas throughout your space, a great way to tie everything together (and make it easier to get around) is to create a garden path. A garden path also protects your lawn and garden from foot traffic.

Don’t miss these affordable garden path ideas.

Flower bed stones add a finishing touch to your landscape. Whether you stack them for a border wall or use them for an insect-proof mulch, stones serve a variety of purposes that are both natural and attractive.

Make your yard trees look neat and tidy by slipping PVC pipes over the handles of your pruning shears and tape them in place to extend your reach and clip high branches without a ladder.

Here are 31 more yard tool hacks that’ll make your life easier.