Tips and Tricks to Make the Most Out of Your Outdoor spaces
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, most cities all around the world have gone on lockdown. During this period of home confinement, when most public places are off-limits, you might have tried to devise many ways to keep yourself busy. Still, it’s no surprise that you might be experiencing cabin fever. Are there outdoor solutions to spice up your home experience? Most definitely, yes! There are many ways of brightening up your home while practicing social distancing. These ideas lie in your potential to creatively utilize the outdoor spaces, both to improve the spaces you live in and to give you possible activities to enjoy your stay at home.
Here are some grandiose outdoor solutions to try out while having fun. These outdoor solutions will help you slow down, appreciate nature, and reconnect with it.
What about a Backyard Bar?
With ‘Stay at Home’ directives, staying in is the new going out. But you definitely don’t want to stay at home watching reruns, soaps, and reality shows. This is the perfect chance to take control of your social life and build something that is going to keep you at home. While it may not be possible to grab a drink at your favorite local bar, thanks to your home’s backyard, you can build a shed bar there.
To get started, you will need standard woodworking tools such as a circular saw, framing nail gun, and compressor. If you have any experience with deck building or other small carpentry projects, you will not find it challenging to build a pub shed. With intermediate woodworking skills and a few helpers, it would take approximately 6 weekends to complete the project.
Even before getting started, you will need to consult an experienced person on how to construct, the choice of materials to use, and the aesthetic design of the structure to complement your home. You should contact a landscaping St. Louis-based team of experts or other hardscaping companies to provide you with details on what tools and materials to use and other hardscaping ideas.
Inexpensive Landscaping
Have you ever had ideas of doing a design makeover on your yard landscape? This is the time to implement landscape ideas without costing you much. It might be fruitful to reconsider the current state of your overall landscaping and see what needs to be removed, added, or improved. It could be adding greenery and vivid colors with plants and flowers, or an entire makeover of the overall landscape design. For example, you can make interesting geometric patterns with pavers and ground cover.
To achieve the design, use recycled pavers on unused ground spaces in your yard and make a mosaic pattern of your choice. After that, plant grass or moss in between the seams to create a balanced contrast. In the end result, the landscape design will be made of alternating patterns of hardscape(recycled pavers) contrasted against the landscape(grass or moss). The combination of the two materials means that you will need less of each, therefore, making the design inexpensive.
These outdoor solutions are only limited by your creativity. However, if you are unsure of what to do, it is a good idea to consult landscaping St. Louis specialists or any other hardscaping companies available for insight on the kind of plants that would thrive or the proper materials that would suit the drainage in your area. These professionals will help you achieve your desires for outdoor solutions.
A Home Garden in The Backyard
During World War I and World War II, the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and German adopted the concept of Victory Gardens to assist in the fighting effort. Governments encouraged their citizens to convert every idle plot of land, from backyards to unused public lands into gardens that would be used for planting, harvesting, and storing crops. This effort was to free up more resources and supplement their rations during that difficult time.
A Victory Garden or home garden is a fun hobby that you can keep up with even after the pandemic is gone.
To create a home garden, you’ll need a few things to get started: An idea of what to grow, the general design of the landscape, seeds, pots, and tools. Besides, there are several environmental factors to consider, including lighting, temperature, humidity, and watering systems. To get an insight into these things, you might consider contacting any landscaping St. Louis local garden supply company. The team will evaluate and determine outdoor solutions that best suit the yard layout and your needs.
Regarding the tools to use, you need a trowel to transfer the seedlings from the nursery to the pots, a pair of pruning shears, and a watering can. You can start by making a DIY nursery by reusing anything from cartons to old buckets, and even rolled-up newspapers.
Once your seeds have sprouted, make sure that the soil conditions of the pot or planters on which you’ll be transferring the seedlings to are correct. You can check it yourself using a soil pH meter. Otherwise, you can have the soil testing done by landscaping St. Louis professionals.
Once you are certain of the soil conditions, the next step involves transplanting the seedlings. Do not worry about this stage as there are plenty of resources on Youtube to take you through the procedure. Soft sack pots are great substitutes for clay pots or wooden planters. In addition to being light, they offer ideal aeration for plants to grow stronger stems and roots.
Also, you can have all that done by landscaping St. Louis professionals who offer high-quality planting services that range from land preparation, hand selection of plants, and maintenance. Landscaping St. Louis professionals will take into consideration some of the subtle design details such as color, textures, and general style to create a personalized garden. Ranging from the herb garden to season your food-to-fresh vegetables and fruits to add to your meals, you can entrust the landscaping St. Louis team of experts to grow and maintain your garden.
Blend Landscape with Outdoor Structures
Sometimes, you want to enjoy sunlight and the garden without direct sunlight. You can achieve this in various ways, by adding a gazebo, pergola, or pavilion. Building these structures in your yard is one of the best outdoor solutions that will give you an exciting and rewarding experience that ultimately adds value to your home. However, it is imperative to consider careful planning to ensure that the structures are usable within the local building guidelines and complement your home design. Some hardscaping companies have provided some of the guidelines to follow to ensure a smooth installation of the structures. These guidelines are as follows:
First, you need to decide on the placement of the outdoor structure. You will need to evaluate the location to ensure that it meets your needs and complements the general layout of the home.
The ideal sites for the construction of outdoor structures are those with flat terrains. Most hardscaping companies recommend building on flat sites because they minimize the amount of support used on the structures. It will also favor drainage; you’ll need to avoid adding new structures on the lowest point of the land where water collects after heavy rain or placing the structures on the highest points as they would block views to the outside.
If your site has a steep slope, you will need to include some hardscaping ideas such as retaining walls to reduce soil erosion and to raise up the structure to avoid flooding. For such a complex setup, you will need to consult hardscaping companies around you.
Erecting the structures near immature trees would interfere with the growth of the trees; therefore, you will need to avoid building them close to the trees.
It is also necessary to consider access through your yard. Just like many regions, your local government has a set of building codes and regulations that would guide you on how to treat the access through the yard. These regulations will give you an insight on how to manage access spaces to allow for escape in case of hazards such as fire outbreak. The guidelines might also offer specific requirements on the distance of structures from public infrastructure.
Secondly, you will want to have careful site preparation to ensure that the structures are stable and last long. The way you will prepare your site will depend on the size and type of the structure you will be installing.
For the maximum value of the outdoor structure, choose the largest structure that can generously accommodate you and your family. A large structure will never go to waste as there will arise other outdoor solutions that can be done in these structures.
Now that you have an outdoor structure, it is best when you complement it with other outdoor features. You will want to have an outdoor kitchen to enhance your outdoor experiences; bonding with family is often centered around food. In such outdoor solutions, do you envision having a large dining table or a cozy, intimate setting with a quality grill and cooking station? Whichever setup you wish to have, an outdoor structure such as pergola suits it.
When you want to welcome visitors in, or throw a ‘quarantine’ party with your family, think of a way to make your outdoor spaces beautiful. Make sure that you consult hardscaping companies around you who know how to work around the areas and build impressive outdoor spaces- within your budget constraints.
Backyard Camp!
You and your family need a summer vacation the most during this time when its impossible to get out of your house. But do not worry; the best option is to open your back door, set up a tent, and entertain your kids for a couple of nights. Any tent will charm the kids, but if you can get a large one, the better. You can purchase or rent one from one of your local hardscaping companies. These nights can include simple home-cooked food, board games, or movies. Before erecting the tent, ensure that the ground cover is free from stagnant groundwater. If the ground there is any groundwater (from pipe leakages or poor drainage), contact any hardscaping companies to correct the drainage.
Once the tent is ready, you will want to think about how to furnish and decorate to create an exciting aura. Think of any theme (Sport, party, superhero, etc.) and get creative with it in the camp. Do not forget to include the essential furnishings needed for camping, this includes sleeping bags, flashlights, tables, beddings, and a fire pit. Constructing a durable fireplace can be challenging; however, there are a variety of designs and sizes available for purchase in most of the hardscaping companies.
Once that is done, think of the fun activities to do, and create a plan to keep the children entertained. With the lockdown, backyard camping is a simple solution to unwind and break from the monotony of staying indoors.
Art Gallery in Your Driveway
There is so much you can do as regards art. But, you would love to be reminded of the endless ways to immerse yourself back into creating beautiful artwork at home, but now in your outdoor spaces. One way of expressing yourself through art can be through chalk art on your fence, driveway, or in any hardscape in your compound. Among all the outdoor solutions, chalk art will be the easiest to achieve in almost no time at all.
The condition of the hardscapes in your yard, however, will matter, as far as drawing on them is concerned. It will be better to sketch on surfaces that are free from moisture. If the hardscape is worn out and soaks up water, you will first want to repair or replace the concrete blocks in your driveway. Hardscaping companies will offer solutions on the best way to treat the hardscape.
Turn your driveway and your wall into an art gallery with chalk drawings!
