Sprucing Up Your Backyard

It might be a little hard to imagine right now with the frigid temperatures and the snowy conditions we are experiencing, but in a mere few months we will be heading outside more to enjoy he warmer weather. For most of us that means we will be sitting around and enjoying the climate in our own backyards.

If you want to fix up your backyard for your summer enjoyment, the time to start planning the changes that you are thinking of is now. You will want to start by asking yourself a series of questions. What do you want to do with your backyard? Do you want to plant a garden? Put in a pond? Build a deck? Put in a pool? Do some smaller craft projects? Now is the time to plan out these ideas and put them on paper or if you have a smaller project in mind, why not begin them now?

If you are thinking of smaller scale project that will allow you to make a few slight changes, plan on taking some Saturdays and scour some local garage sales, thrift stores and flea markets for furniture and odds and ends that you can use to beautify your back yard. You can re-paint your furniture with outdoor friendly paint and if you are handy with a needle and thread, you can recover the furniture with material that can withstand the elements.

Here are a few projects that you can easily do with a little planning and not much money.

- Decide to make a creative birdhouse for your backyard. You can choose to paint it to match your house, paint it a wacky color, stain it or tile it with mosaic tiles

- Purchase an artist's or painter's drop cloth and stencil it into a floor mat for your back door.

- Purchase plans and build a window box for flowers or herbs.

- Make a homemade bird bath out of clay flower pots. Purchase two large pots and stack them, hot gluing a saucer to the top for the bird bath.

- Buy a kit from a craft store to make cement tiles for your garden. These are fun to do because you can put your child's handprints or shells or marbles even into it.

-Purchase some quart sized bottles, go to the beach, get some sand and shells, fill the bottles up half way and put in each bottle a tea light candle and place them in strategic areas in your backyard for a special glow. This is an especially nice decoration if you are having a back yard party.

-Make a mobile for outside your window. Cut and bend wire coat hangers into strips and attach fishing line. On the ends, you can put large glass beads, old silver ware, bells or even old keys.

There are plenty of fun ideas that you can us to spruce up your back yard and the time you spend with your projects will be time well spent!