So you’re making some changes in your yard.  What’s on your wish list?  If you’re like most, “adding color” is a biggie.  And if you’re like most, this is along the lines of what you have in mind:

That’s a really nice shot sent in by Enviroscape, to be sure, but a bed full of lush perennials is far from the only way to add color to the garden.  Spend some time poking around on YardShare, and you’ll find all kinds of bright ideas for painting your own colorful masterpiece in the landscape.

Homeowners who have courtyard walls often feel the need to hide them with plant material.  But what about using that blank canvas to help establish your garden’s theme?  Here’s how Z3 did it to create a bright and bold hacienda at home:

Lawn Expressions took it a step further in a Baytown, TX yard by painting the fence, painting the deck, staining the concrete, using black Mexican beach pebbles, and installing beds of contrasting red and black mulch for a one-of-a-kind landscape that includes almost no plants at all:

Looking for something more subtle?  Try pavers of two different colors to create an earth-toned checkerboard pattern, like Karen Nelson did on her Laguna Beach, CA patio:

Even the containers and pots you pick out can add color on a patio or deck.  Mindi Verdi’s large planting pots show off her green thumb without sticking out like a sore thumb in her Peoria, AZ landscape:

Were you one of those kids who went crazy with a new 64-count box of Crayolas?  I’m guessing Judith was.  Here’s how she coordinated her patio furniture cushions and umbrella to match specific plants in her Miami, FL garden:

If you have a swimming pool, you’ve got a big blob of blue in your yard, right?  Sure, but what kind of blue?  Thanks to a staggering range of pool finishes, you can create almost any look, from Rebecca Reardon’s impossibly bright blue:

To the Caribbean blue of Rhonda Fallis’s pool:

To the deep and mysterious look of a near-black-bottom pool, like Judith Zitiello has:

And don’t be boxed in by blue.  Colored pool lights can create surreal effects, like Mike did with his Houston pool:

But you know what?  Don’t forget that green is a color, too.  And sometimes if your backdrop is really plain and stark, like the white facade of this Winter Park, FL home, it’s the perfect way to color a landscape successful: