Water features act like magnets for people and wildlife. Creating a small pond, a waterfall or installing a fountain in the backyard could be a way to give the landscape character and a more relaxing flair.

Surround the water feature with river rocks and rock garden plants to complete the nook.

If you have a mature tree in your backyard, you can be called lucky. In addition to its majestic beauty, the tree is also a starting point to create a relaxing corner.

You can install a hammock on its branches or arrange a sitting corner below its thick crown. The natural shade will ensure that time spent outdoors is cool and calm.

If you want to make the nook more exciting, you can install strings of lights, lanterns and other hanging decorations.

Decorate the walkway curving through your backyard with a wooden arc. Plant climbing roses or other varieties next to the supports to let them weave around them and “build” a blooming living arc.

This feature will cost you almost nothing, especially if there is leftover lumber, but at the same time will upgrade the overall look of the backyard and will improve the curb appeal.

There is an idea for every garden space, even the tiniest one. With a tiered flower stand like the one shown here, you can have your small herb or flower garden in a small corner.

The vertical layout ensures a compact size and plenty tiered space where the pots can be placed.

Want a fairytale garden? You can do it if you make a planting plan. Gather seedlings of as many flowers as you can and arrange them in a pattern.

Roses, jasmine, lavender, sunflowers in combination with short evergreen shrubs make an amazing living carpet that will provide texture and color to the green lawn.

Decking comes in help when the backyard is uneven. It is a cost-effective way to straighten the terrain and ensure a leveled space for an outdoor sitting corner.

You can make it from composite decking boards, pallet slats, PVC or pressure-treated wood.

Make a comfortable living outdoor area where you can have a meal, a drink or a nice chat with your family or friends.

Invest in furniture and shelter so that there isn’t any obstacle to the pleasantly spent time outdoors. Decorate with flower pots, strings of lights and other decorations that are suitable for the interior. They will make the atmosphere homier and welcoming.

If you have defined the backyard into sectors, you can add a pergola to visually unite them. Being part of the garden decor, it will be clever to cover the pergola’s sides with trellises where roses or other climbing plants can develop and create a whimsy garden transition.

The tiered look of this fountain resembles a waterfall as if nature has created it. The sloping terrain has provided the perfect set for a waterfall surrounded by a rock garden.

Why having a waterscape has become so popular? Some people want it to listen to the murmuring sound of water, others want to attract songbirds, dragonflies and frogs. Nevertheless, a water feature can instantly transform the backyard design and certainly turns into a focal point.

Adding a staircase to the garden is a way to visually enlarge a garden and give it structural depth. Complete the staircase with short retaining walls on either side of it and decorate the surroundings with flower pots.

The material of the staircase depends on the existing decor. A country-style garden will embrace a wooden staircase while an English type of garden will match brick or tile stairs.

A stone staircase is also an option if there is a paver walkway or concrete stepping stones or tiles.

Repurposing items into garden decor gives the landscape an outstanding character and unique effect. Galvanized tubs can become ponds, flower pots, herb gardens, or a waterfall. Old chests of drawers stay opened to hold cascading flowers.

That broken chair is given a new life with fresh and bright paint color to hold a tuft of blooming flowers. The broken birdbath can be repurposed into a flower stand to add a pop of bright color to the green background.

It is always a good idea to plan in advance the planting. With that, you will assure that there are colorful blooms all the time.

Use shrubs and ornamental grass to give the garden a character. You can also use a pattern for planting which will make the result more harmonious.

credit: Isabelle Cloutier