"table" yards, pictures, and ideas...
Making Plans, Designing and Creating a New Garden
Whether considering a small space or a complete yard make-over, you’ll need to assess and analyze the area—or areas—of your landscape that you are wanting to enhance or in which you’re going to create a new garden....
Keeping the Kids in Mind
I grew up next door to a vacant lot. On any given weekend, it was a football/kickball/wiffle ball field, home to dawn-to-dusk “capture the flag” marathons, a BMX test track, an obstacle course, hide-and-seek homebase, or the site of our neighborhood Olympics. Maybe vacant lots are just rare these days… or maybe today’s kids demand more than an abandoned field to play in. Whatever the reason, more and more folks are dedicating parts of their yard to the smallest members of the family....
The Thrill of the Grill
“Ah, spring. When a YardShare member’s fancy turns to thoughts of grilling.” (With sincere apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson.) Nothing stokes a case of spring fever like a column of fragrant smoke wafting over the fence from your neighbor’s BBQ. If this is the year you’re planning up to upgrade your grill, you’ve got plenty to think about....
All Decked Out
For easily-accessible outdoor entertainment space, it’s hard to beat a deck. As a rule, decks typically feel more like a part of the house than a part of the garden. But if you have a deck, there’s probably no better vantage point from which to view your garden… and there may be no part of your outdoor space where you spend more time....
Pond Perfection
There’s nothing quite like a pond in the landscape. Gorgeous focal feature, destination spot, miniature ecosystem of aquatic plants and animals. Lucky for DIYers, it’s also relatively easy to pull off. If you’re pondering a pond for your garden, take a quick peek at how some of your fellow YardSharers have done it....
Walk This Way
Creating a landscape to be gazed at from afar is all well and good. Presenting that sensational view from the street or from the house is one of the main goals of just about any yard transformation. But gardens are also meant to be enjoyed on a more personal level. Intricate leaf patterns, unusual foliage textures, and the detailed colors of blooms and flowers can only be fully appreciated from up close. ...
Be a Cottage Garden Renegade
It is easy to be intimidated by all the gardening and landscaping information out there. Books, magazines, websites, and how-to TV shows promise to teach you all the fundamentals of good design in one fell swoop and leave you ready to give your yard a full makeover in the time it takes to turn a page, click a link, or sit through to the next commercial break....
Outdoor Kitchens: Steel Studs or Concrete Blocks?
Anyone who has ever contemplated constructing their own outdoor kitchen knows there is a long list of ingredients to consider. But while it’s easy to get caught up in the fun decisions like grill size, bun warmers, and beer taps, there’s a fundamental issue that has to be dealt with first: How will you build the darn thing???...
Got a Hobby? Take it Outside!
For most of us, our landscapes say a lot about who we are and what’s important to us. You can spot the yard of an avid gardener from a mile away. That backyard vegetable garden probably belongs to someone who’s concerned about where his family’s food is coming from. Take a look at this personal water park in Granite Bay, CA......
Make the Most of Your Small Space
Letting your landscape creativity run wild is easy when you have a sprawling piece of property to work with: a big, blank canvas ready and waiting for whatever your imagination dreams up. But what about when space is at a real premium, as in: you don’t have any? If your “yard” is a high-rise balcony twenty stories off the ground, does that mean you’re simply out of luck when it comes to creating a garden to call your own? ...
