Your backyard may not be acres of rolling green hills attached to a huge mansion, but that does not mean you can’t have a fantastic space back there. Landscaping for small backyards takes a special finesse if you want to maximize the potential of the area, and here are some tips to achieve the garden of your dreams.

Go In With A Plan

Deciding what you want with the space is the most important decision you will make in this whole process. Do you want to entertain? In that case, a patio setting with room for a couch and fire pit, or perhaps a table and chairs with an umbrella, all sitting on concrete would be best. If you want a play area for kids and dogs, a flat grassy area might be best. If you love growing your own food, create a little farm in your backyard. All landscaping will come after you finalize your plan.

Start From Nothing

If you are looking to completely redo the entire look and vibe of your backyard, completely gutting it and starting it from scratch is the best way to go. That way you have the entire space to work with, and are not trying to work around aspects you would honestly rather not have in the design. Remove all vegetation, including trees, and level the land, so you have a completely blank slate to work with.

Divide the Space

Depending on what function you have decided you want your yard to be, you may want to put up a fence, wall, high bushes, or any other kind of barricade between sections or just around the area. If you would like a patio area, put in a cement area for furniture to go on. To create a clear separation of your patio area from any garden areas, try planting tall shrubs or installing a fence. A specialist from Mills Fence says porch railing can provide an aesthetically-pleasing divide in spaces of any size. Choose the large vegetation (smaller decorative vegetation will come later), and make sure that the proportions work for the size of space you have.

Make the Space Seem Larger

If you do not want to do a complete overhaul of the backyard and start from scratch, take some time and clear out everything extraneous, such as trimming trees and bushes and sweeping away brush, leaves and other debris. Also, make sure that your lawn is neatly trimmed and edged, especially when it interacts with flowerbeds. All of this will create the illusion that you have a much bigger backyard than the square footage suggests.

Flowers

Even just a few planters or hanging baskets can make a big difference in the welcoming feeling of a backyard. You don’t have to have a green thumb to take care of those kinds of flowers, and they will look great.

Landscaping is never easy, even in a small space. These tips will help you make the most out of your small backyard, and turn it into your perfect vision.