11 Ways to Transform Your Side Yard
Make walking from your front yard to the back an experience to remember with ideas for this oft-neglected landscape area
As you’re making your gardening plans it’s easy to forget about side yards. They’re often narrow and utilitarian, but they also can offer a pleasant way to pass from front yard to back without having to cut through the house.
While we’ve looked at side yard ideas before, designers are constantly coming up with new ways to tap their potential. Here are some of the special touches found around the side of the house lately.
While we’ve looked at side yard ideas before, designers are constantly coming up with new ways to tap their potential. Here are some of the special touches found around the side of the house lately.
1. Symmetrical style. White agapanthus accentuates two lines of cut bluestone pavers along this beautiful side yard.
2. A place to stop. A bench facing a slope planted with flowers is a nice place to hide out and have a quiet moment.
4. Fantastic stairs. A sloped site can be a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity for grand stairs. This one includes terraced stone retaining walls and steps that match boulders found on the site.
In this side yard, an arbor at the top of the stairs serves as a destination. The plantings add a variety of color and texture while helping hold down the soil, preventing erosion.
5. An outdoor room. By nestling this table next to the edge of the property, it feels more intimate and protected. It’s also convenient to the door that leads into the kitchen.
6. Tantalizing focal point. This is an opulent side yard, but it offers an idea for smaller versions. The path becomes an axis leading to a fountain at the end of it. Flanking it in mounding grasses and crape myrtle trees provides a sense of grandeur and procession.
More about ornamental grasses
More about ornamental grasses
7. A sense of mystery. Conversely, a meandering path like this with shrubs at the end leads you back to discover what’s around the corner.
8. A great gate. The eye is drawn down the path to the wall, and the red door beckons one to see what secrets lie beyond it.
Photo Flip: 77 Gorgeous Garden Gates
Photo Flip: 77 Gorgeous Garden Gates
9. Mood lighting. Kudos to photographer Lucas Fladzinski, who captured this sunset and landscape lighting so beautifully. Note that the landscape lighting not only illuminates the path, but also gently spotlights the trees.
10. Design overhead. Here, wisteria was trained to make a leafy tunnel. Designing a pathway through a compressed space into a more open space creates a dramatic effect.
11. Botanical garden style. This side yard reminds me of the tropical plant gardens at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. A variety of shapes, sizes, textures and colors keeps the entire walk interesting. For a design like this I’d think about adding botanical names on labels to educate my guests.
Share: Have you designed your side yard or do you want help coming up with ideas? Please post photos in the Comments.
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Houzz guides to side yard design
Find landscape designers near you
Share: Have you designed your side yard or do you want help coming up with ideas? Please post photos in the Comments.
More
Houzz guides to side yard design
Find landscape designers near you