Small Backyard Landscape Ideas: Backyard Oasis

We think you’ll find inspiration in our small backyard landscape ideas! Planning and laying out a garden can be challenging in a small yard where space is limited, but we’ve got some solutions!

We took our sad looking backyard from this…

Pictures 007_Before_bof.jpg

…to this lush oasis (thankfully by the time we were done, our neighbour in the back removed the gargantuan satellite dish!).

Garden 2011.jpg

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Creating a Backyard Oasis

Creating a backyard oasis is a process. Like the nursery rhyme, Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow, there’s more to creating a backyard oasis than meets the eye. The ‘silver bells’ and ‘cockle shells’ referred to in the rhyme were colloquialisms for instruments of torture. In a lot of ways, landscaping is much the same; full of backbreaking work and torture. So I’m officially calling this DIY project ‘the Mother (Nature) of All Projects’.

You’ll find plenty of ideas on the net showing you backyard ideas for small yards. But when you put your own blood sweat and tears into a landscaping project like this, you come to love your own better than anything out there!

Small Backyard Landscape Ideas Video

Garden Tour

Watch this video to see how pretty the garden is – even after a rainstorm!

I’ve never personally crossed paths with another handy woman ambitious enough to build and landscape her own backyard. I used to be able to bench press patio stones with the best of them, but not now. I will likely never undertake such a strenuous project again. But then again….. maybe creating a backyard oasis is like giving birth. You might swear you’ll never do it again, but then you soon forget the pain; especially as you see your garden creation grow and take shape.

Here’s where we started:

Small backyard landscape ideas before

Now, I have to preface my DIY garden story by letting you know that I didn’t do it all myself. Although I did more than my fair share, my ‘partner in grime’ – Hubs – did a lot of the heavy lifting too. He also did some of the heavy thinking—but I’ll get to that later.

Motivation For Small Backyard Landscape Ideas

My motivation behind doing hardcore DIY projects, like this backyard garden, is a little different than my husband’s. After the worst experience in my 20’s with a shady contractor, I swore that I would never hire anyone again. Ever since, I have DIY’d just about everything.

My husband’s motivation, on the other hand, is that he won’t spend money on something he can do himself. After all, there’s not only a lot of satisfaction but financial gain to be had. Improving your investment by feathering your own nest – and learning new skills along the way, is a win-win.

I guess you could call our backyard transformation a ‘labour of love’. We quite literally started right before our wedding and got right back to it again the day after our honeymoon.

Our backyard oasis project took a year and a half from start to finish; not counting the ‘do-over’ you’ll read at the end. That amount of time might seem excessive versus a contractor. But when you DIY it and do your own shopping, there’s no comparison. You’ll find special touches (like statuary) to add along the way that customizes your landscaping beyond what any contractor can do.

small backyard landscaping idea showing finished patio, dry creek bed, trellis, stepping stone with moss, rock garden and topiary

Small backyard landscape ideas – trellises

Backyard Oasis DIY

We divided our small backyard landscape ideas into four phases:

  1. Backyard Design; plan/dig/ compact base
  2. Hardscape and Softscape; set pavers, fill in with polymeric sand, plant garden and install rock garden;
  3. Water Feature; set up the pond
  4. Water Saving and Privacy Features; install dry creek bed/ flagstone/moss, build and install trellises

By breaking the work into manageable sections, we were able to get it done at our own pace. And I also think at a reasonable price. The budget came in at around $25K for everything.

If you’re not comfortable with landscape design, your local nursery often has designers on staff. They can help you draw up a plan and also advise you on the plantings. The fee for this service is usually around $60 – $120. It really depends on the time involved, so check with your local nursery.

IMPORTANT: Before you break any ground, call your utility company. They will mark the phone and gas lines so you don’t accidentally dig into these services!

My best advice when attempting a backyard oasis project is to start small (or at least smaller, in our case!). As neither of us had ever installed a patio before, we decided to do our front walkway first. Practice makes perfect. We were able to get all our mistakes out of the way before starting the backyard oasis! Here’s a glimpse of our project to create a small water feature:

Practicing on a smaller project first, before taking on the mother (nature) of all landscape projects in the backyard oasis!

Phase One – Backyard Design

(Plan, dig, compact base)

With the design plan complete before our wedding, we literally broke ground right after returning from our honeymoon. Our idea was to let nature takes its course over the winter to help compact the base for us. So the goal was to dig the patio and pond, and get the initial base in place by the Fall.  It must have worked because nothing has heaved in the near-decade since it’s been completed.

I’m a big proponent of laying out a design on computer. Since our travertine has multiple sizes of stone and a particular pattern, I wanted to lay every stone in the correct order. Back then I didn’t have any fancy graphic programs, so I scanned a picture of the drawing, imported it into powerpoint and completed the paver layout there. I don’t know why, but somehow it managed to work it out to scale.

Landscape Plan

Small backyard landscape ideas plan: hardscape and landscape plantings

Get a Deal

We really lucked out on the hardscape material. After seeing real travertine marble on display at the stone yard while shopping for the front paver walkway makeover, I fell in love. But not with the price. So Hubs let his fingers do the walking by calling the manufacturer to see if they were open to the public. Our timing couldn’t have been better!  The manufacturer was moving the entire facility and, since stone is expensive to move, they were selling their inventory at incredible prices.

We jumped right on it. Even though we weren’t quite ready to start the backyard oasis project, we placed our order. Luckily it could sit on skids in our garage.

Delivery day; stack of travertine pavers

To start, measure out from the house and place flags or markers at each corner of your project. If your patio is a rectangle, you’ll only need four flags. But we had jogs in our plan (and a pond) to account for. Tie some nylon string onto the first stake and stretch it to each one around the perimeter. Then pound more permanent wooden stakes into the ground about 1 foot away from each ground flag. You’ll need the extra room for the edge restraints (which you’ll see further ahead).

Stages of prep work (clockwise from left). Site grading and grass removal, digging the pond and pouring retaining wall, initial base of HPB stone in place to overwinter

Establishing Grade

Back in the day, we didn’t have a laser level. So Hubs used an ancient method – a water level – to establish our grade.

We suggest you watch this excellent video from This Old House. The video demonstrates three different methods for establishing a grade. We wanted our patio to slope slightly away from the house for water drainage. We laid out perfectly level lines, as they did in the video. Then we re-adjusted our lines 1/4″ lower for each foot out from the house to get the gentle slope we wanted.

Calculating Width and Depth

One thing to keep in mind when you dig out the area for the patio is that you have to excavate BEYOND the size of the patio. For instance, if your patio is 10′ x 20′ you need to add at least 6″ onto each side (ideally, the area should extend past the pavers a distance that’s equal to the depth of the base material or 10′ + 6″ + 6″ by 20′ + 6″ + 6″ = 11 x 21).

The pictures above and below illustrate the extra width around the perimeter of our patio. When the base material extends beyond the perimeter of the patio, this stabilizes the edge and will allow you to install your edge restraints.Travertine patio in the rain showing metal retainers. Underlayment extends past edge of pavers for small backyard landscape ideas

Once the patio is complete, back fill with soil and plant grass seed. Or put in strips of sod to fill in the gap if you want it to grow in faster. Be sure to water thoroughly until grass establishes. We didn’t do that; we have other plans for the last patch of grass!

Retaining the Edge

Don’t skip the step of installing edge restraints around the exterior edges of your patio or it will shift over time and your hard work will be a waste (again, you don’t need it up against the  house). We chose metal edging and installed at least four spikes for every 6 foot length.

Installing a minimum of 4 spikes every 6 feet

High Performance Bedding

As a base material, we used a stone called HPB (High Performance Bedding). I have to say that HPB was a dream to work with; you can get it through some local nurseries or a stone yard.

HPB does double duty by replacing the bedding layer and the base layer of material with only one material (vs. sand and stone) under pavers. HPB is also a real convenience to use because only one huge pile of material comes to the site instead of two!

Before you have it delivered, but sure to put down tarps on your driveway and along the edge of the grass to keep it contained (you can drape it back over the stone afterwards and weigh it down to keep the tarp from killing your grass). If you don’t prepare your area this way you’ll be picking stone out of your grass for years to come.

HPB delivery; truck pouring stone onto driveway to complete small backyard landscape ideas. Make sure to tarp the grass too!

HPB provides excellent drainage. Because of the size of the chip (3/8″) it achieves 97% compaction without mechanical means. However I would still recommend compacting it.  Avoid the temptation to dump all the HBP onto the ground and compact the stone only once – it won’t work.

Using a rented compacter, compact the ground first, then also compact after you apply each 4 inch layer of HPB.

Patio area compacted, graded and ready for HPB stone for small backyard landscape ideas

Material Depth

There isn’t a rule of thumb when it comes to the depth of the base material. We used way more HPB than would normally be recommended – which might be overkill, but we didn’t want anything to heave during the freeze and thaw of our Canadian winters. You should ask for advice from your local dealer; Unilock also has a great technical guide that you can read for further information on how to determine how much material for your base (amongst other great information): Unilock Technical Guide

landscape Dumpster Rental

When removing large areas of grass, rent a dumpster that’s specifically for compost material (vs.renovation waste) as it will be cheaper. If you can rent one that opens at the side for easy access, your back will appreciate it; its amazing how quickly the pile builds up! Removing grass is dirty dusty work; here you can see I’m wearing goggles, mask and gloves.

Summer 2006 024_final.jpg

Forget the diamonds. A wheelbarrow is a girl’s best friend (when it comes to landscaping)!

Don’t forget to trench out for electrical if you’re installing a pond with a pump. When it comes to electrical, be familiar with your local building codes – or better yet, hire a licensed electrician to complete this aspect of the project.

Electrical wiring is protected in tubing before it's buried in the trench for small backyard landscape ideas

When you are doing your own landscaping, and are novices like us, you need to keep a flexible attitude because you’ll likely run into several challenges. We ran into two obstacles that had similar solutions:

Stone Block Retaining Wall

Our first challenge came after realizing that the side of our house, where the patio was extending fully to the fence, had a drop off to our neighbour’s lot line. It’s very common in suburban areas, where houses are tight, to have a subtle valley between each house to direct rain water away.This discovery meant we had to find a solution to contain the HPB base and prevent it from falling out from underneath the pavers.

We ended up having to build a retaining wall against the fence that we didn’t plan for. Since we were building a step under our sliding patio doors, we had to construct the retaining wall first. Back again we went to the stone yard to get the proper retaining wall system!

When the landscaping odds are stacked up against you, you're going to have to stack a retaining wall - or two for small backyard landscape ideas!

Retaining  blocks have ledges that stack together, so you really can’t stack them wrong!

Finished area of small backyard landscape ideas showing bench in front of dry creek bed, retaining wall and vines on trolls

In the end, the retaining wall was a nice addition; it frames the privacy screens we built beautifully!

Pouring Concrete for a Retaining Wall/Step

Our second challenge came after discovering that the entry into our backyard oasis would also need a retaining wall of sorts. I didn’t want a different stone there however; I wanted the travertine to be the first thing you see as you step into the backyard. Since necessity is the mother of invention, I designed a semi-circular step. It entailed making a concrete form and pouring cement so there was a permanent structure to float the patio over.

Collage transformation of step for small backyard landscape ideas

We ended up mixing all the cement ourselves in one of those ‘rolling’ cement mixers buckets, similar to the one pictured below. By the seventh bag, I was exhausted. If we had to do it all over again, I would plan ahead and look into the cost of getting a truck to deliver a pre-mixed batch so we could pour it all at once.

Lee Valley Concrete Mixer.jpg

Source: Leevalley.com

finishing the step

Once the cement was poured and cured, I applied stone to the face of the inner curve with adhesive made especially for marble (other adhesives may stain and show through natural travertine).

woman applying stone paver to face of step

Be sure NOT to cement the edges down on top of the concrete. If there is no flexibility at the point where the pavers meet the top of the poured cement retaining wall, the stones could crack and/or heave. The best option is to adding some flexible caulking under the edge of each paver (where it meets up with the rim of the wall) to hold them down. This will help prevent them from gradually shifting forward over the edge. If the pavers do happen to ease forward over the years, you can reapply some caulk and stick them back down.

When we laid the travertine up to the step, we transferred the curve of the step with pencil to the underneath of each stone – adding on a 1″ overhang. Then cut them all on a wet saw.

Fast forward. You can score right up to the line, then remove each section to get the curve.

Our two challenges were a lot more work than we bargained for. However, when it comes to landscaping, as novices, you just have to go with the flow!

Phase Two – Hardscape and Softscape:

(Top up the base, grade away from the house for water drainage, set paving stones and fill in with polymeric sand, shop again – for plant material and pond accessories, install rock garden and plant garden).

After nature took its course and compacted our initial layer of HPB stone, we topped it up in the Spring and did our final tamping and grading.

Screeding

You’ll need some long metal pipes to do your screeding and final levelling; as you can see here we used aluminum. Lay the metal pipes on either side of the area you’re levelling and set them to the finished height of the string you set up. Make sure you have a straight edge that’s long enough to span the two pipes and then set it on top of the pipes and drag it along, steadily levelling off the top of the stone.

After the first pull through the stone, check with your straight edge to make sure you don’t have any gaps underneath. If you find gaps, throw a little more stone in that spot and then re-screed until everything is perfectly level. When you’re happy with it, carefully pull out the screed rails and fill in the indentations with more HPB and pat it down level (I did this as I laid the patio stones because my reach into the field only went so far!).

This video demonstrates how to screed (they are using sand instead of HPB, but the technique is the same).

Lay Pavers

I started laying stone in front of the step and retaining wall. That small bucket is to hold HPB and a plastic scoop so I can fill in the gaps from the metal screen rails. I also have a small level so I can ensure everything is still flat before placing the stones.

Filling in the screed indentations and doing one last check with a level for small backyard landscape ideas

Once all the pavers are laid, wash them down and let them thoroughly dry before applying polymeric sand. Polymeric sand should be swept into the spaces and lightly misted to allow it to set. It’s a great product; it will repel ants and prevent weeds from growing between your beautiful pavers. Check out this Unilock video to learn more about polymeric sand.

Using Polymeric Sand

Some words of caution when using polymeric sand with travertine pavers: our pavers happened to be ‘unfilled’ and in their natural state… meaning that any natural imperfections, pits and holes on the surface were not filled in. We personally love that rustic look, but when you add polymeric sand, keep in mind that it will settle in these crevices and be noticeable.

There are two common sense solutions to this dilemma: buy filled travertine pavers in the first place or make sure the colour of your polymeric sand is as close match to your travertine pavers as possible.

Now, don’t laugh too hard but I went the extra mile and came up with a third solution to this problem – a solution that actually sucks! Yes, that’s right, that’s me vacuuming …. the patio! Or more specifically ‘sand boogers’ from the crevices of the travertine.

With a wet/dry vac I sucked all the noticeable sand out of the crevices of the travertine. Since I did this BEFORE misting them with water, I didn’t get what I affectionately call ‘sand boogers’ on the surface of my pavers. #vacuumingsandboogers

vacuuming 'sand boogers' from travertine stone crevices. This job really 'sucks'

You’ll find more information on using polymeric sand to resand a walkway here.

Once the patio and garden was done, we completed a rock garden to fill in this corner of the yard.

Ginko tree waiting to be planted in its new home in the rock garden

An Aside

By the way, in case you’re thinking we must have a rugged vehicle ready to transport our MANY MANY rock purchases home with us, below is the actual car we used to schlep every piece of rock and flagstone home. It’s literally being held together by duct tape! But that’s a whole other story!

The trusty old beater used for lugging stone home

Planting the Garden

Now for the exciting part: buying the plants and installing all the ‘softscape’. This is the part I LOVE – seeing it all come together.

woman planting flowers in flower beds; small backyard landscape ideas

Busy as a bee

I adore this pom pom Juniper and I feel like a proud paint mama! It’s grown so big now that it wraps around our happy sad faces. There is some trimming necessary with an ornamental like this in an otherwise low maintenance garden, but it’s worth the extra effort! See how to reshape a pom pom topiary to keep it looking great as it grows.

Final landscaped view of back corner (rock garden in the background) of small backyard landscape ideas

Ferns love shade so there’s one beneath this chair and another under the umbrella.

In spaces like the rock garden, plant ‘fillers, spillers and thrillers’! The thriller is the mini ginko tree in the back. It will grow slowly and not too tall for this small corner.

Snow on the mountain is a spiller but can easily overtake other plants (as you see above) so it must be pulled back in the Spring to keep it in check.

Fill in with low maintenance succulents.

Phase Three – Water Feature:

Time to set up the pond. After everything else was done, Hubs took over to figure out all the mechanics of the pump for the pond.

small rectangular pond at end of patio; small back landscape ideas

We found a concrete bowl, and the plan was to  drill a hole in the bottom and insert a fountain in the centre of the bowl. But because he wasn’t sure about the capacity, he bought two pumps so he could test them both out; one after the other. One hose was mounted in the pond and the other one was set up to recirculate water from outside of the pond—precariously balanced on top of our brand new green bin and weighed down by a patio stone.

The makeshift pump balanced on a green bin at night

> The makeshift pump balanced on a green bin

Upcyling at its worst …and a big mistake, as it turned out!

closeup of water falling from tube attached to green bin

Don’t do this at home!

Don’t Do This At Home!

One fateful day, when we were out until almost dusk, Hubs left the pump with the makeshift hose running outside the pond. Some rascal of an animal knocked over the stone securing the hose to the green bin and ALL the water in the pond drained out and seeped underneath, which floated the pond liner like the Titanic!

Patio stones heaved up around pond at night

Pond disaster!

It was an ‘Ay Carumba’ moment of gargantuan proportion. By the time we came home, our liner was pointing up to the sky and all the plants were figuratively screaming to be rescued (sadly, even the floating plants were landlocked).

We worked like mad to lift everything out and drain the water before it was pitch dark.

Pond insert removed showing water leak in hole

Oh well! It’s water under the bridge… or rather, the liner!

But right in the middle of our panic, my father and sister dropped by for a visit. Talk about bad timing. But—take it from me—if you ever want to get rid of uninvited guests, threaten to put them to work. And then grab a tool—any tool—like you mean it! Works like a charm. They hightailed it out of there pretty quickly 🤣.

See how to add some zen to your back garden with a water feature.

Next season after the ‘do over’

End of Season 1

Once the rock garden was done, we were at the end of our first season of hard work in the backyard oasis and had to stop to get ready winter. A LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG INTERMISSION GETS INSERTED RIGHT HERE.

The next spring, we (meaning Hubs) re-dug the pond, fit the liner back in. And, bless his heart, Hubs set the pump up safe and secure, permanently attaching it INSIDE the pond!

Small backyard landscape ideas – water feature

We couldn’t really be too upset about the do-over situation when the yard has come so far. Afterall, our pond area started out with a dead twig emerging from the ground and ended up as part of a tranquil spot to relax.

Phase Four – Water Saving and Privacy Features:

(Install dry creek bed/ flagstone/moss and build and install trellises)

Small Backyard Landscape Ideas – Dry Creek Bed

Installing a dry creek bed is a great way to save water; no need to water a tiny patch of grass our backyard oasis! Besides, it would be too awkward to maneuver a lawn mower through the backyard to mow this small patch of grass in our yard.

Small patch of grass left after phase 1 of small backyard landscape ideas

lonely patch of grass

We dug out a flowing shape for the dry creek bed, added in landscape cloth (which we staked into the side to prevent it from shifting) and filled it with a colourful variety of smooth river rock.

We then went shopping for even MORE stone – this time flagstone. It’s fun to handpick the pieces you think will fit best; like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

Embellishments

We also found the PERFECT statue to watch over our newly resurrected pond. Given the aforementioned pond disaster the previous Fall, how fitting is this tragedy and comedy mask statue? It’s like it was meant to be!

Dry creek bed wrapping around our 'Comedy/Tragedy' statuary with Blue Danube Pom Pom Juniper in the background

small backyard landscape ideas – statuary

Flagstone

Dry lay the flagstone before digging around each one. Use an edging tool and remove a few inches of topsoil to inset them into the ground. That will keep them in place and prevent shifting).

After plant materials start to mature, it will look like this!  A few larger stones anchor the perimeter of the dry creek bed. Day lillies and drought resistant (aka low maintenance) ground cover are far more beautiful than the grass ever was!

dry creek bed on east side of yard; small backyard landscape ideas

Small backyard landscape ideas – dry creek bed

To fill in the flagstone with more greenery, plant moss in between and around them. There’s a narrow pathway between the dry creed bed and the fence that wraps around the rock garden and ends at the pond. Covering it in mulch helps to keep the mud and weeds at bay until the moss fills in. Until then, I find the contrast against the pale stone preferable to the dirt.

Creating a backyard oasis is a process. If you're interested in DIY'ing it, we'll take you through 4 phases we used to get the backyard oasis of our dreams. You’ll find inspirational ideas on building a small backyard pond, how to build a dry creek bed and how to build trellises and privacy screens. Birdz of a Feather | backyard landscaping | backyard oasis landscaping | backyard oasis ideas | backyard oasis diy | create a backyard oasis

The moss gets billowy and full as it slowly spreads into the gaps

Small Backyard Landscape Ideas – Trellises

Every small backyard oasis needs at least one trellis. The one you see below was built so we could grow silver lace vine to bring privacy to our small suburban space.

We also built a privacy screen (behind a retaining wall, not shown). Click the link for the DIY on how to build trellises and privacy screens.

Wood trellis in early Spring with vines; small backyard landscape ideas

Believe it or not, you only need to plant two silver lace vines to get this amount of coverage!

Late Summer; we planted 3 Silver Lace Vines for this full lush look; small backyard landscape ideas>

By the time fall rolls around, the silver lace vine blooms. Magnificent!

Autumn; Silver Lace in full bloom on wooden trellis; small backyard landscape ideas

Once the foliage dies back, you see the beautiful form of the trellis once again. So there’s always something interesting to look at no matter what the season.

Small Backyard Landscape Ideas

our little Oasis

The garden facinates me as it changes with the seasons. It even looks great after the rain (as you see in the video near the start). Aside from the how-tos on building a pond, dry creek bed and privacy screens linked throughout this post, be sure to check out our other inspiring garden posts.

The coordinated mirror and shelf shown in the corner below will expand any small outdoor space and check out these creative planter ideas for the garden.

Small backyard landscape ideas after a summer shower

A Little More Privacy

Even with all the DIY trellises, there was still one spot lacking privacy. Check out the solid fence screen we made to complete our small backyard landscape ideas.

Phew – I’m almost as exhausted writing about the ‘Mother (Nature) of All Projects’ as I was actually doing the work of creating our backyard oasis! So the final word goes to…..

#toocoolforthisgarden

Happy / sad face statue with sunglasses in front of pom pom Juniper; small backyard landscape ideas

We’re too cool for this garden!

FAQs for Small Backyard Landscape Ideas

What is the best low maintenance yard?

Here are some low maintenance landscape ideas for backyards: 

  1. Install a stone patio with a strong base. If you have a good base, you won’t experience heaving during the winter months. Stone will endure, while a deck will eventually rot. For DIY installation, nothing could be easier than using High Performance Bedding under the stone. Then fill in with polymeric sand to seal out weeds for years of maintenance free enjoyment.   
  2. Remove remaining grass and install a dry creek bed. You won’t have to mow or water and low maintenance plant material looks great flanking the perimeter. 
  3. Build a rock garden; tuck in hens and chicks between the rocks and in the garden too. They need little water and are drought tolerant.  
  4. Plant the majority of beds with perennials to come back year after year. Check with your local nursery for native varieties that will thrive in your climate. Wait to purchase and plant them in the Fall to save money too! 
  5. Use moss between stepping stones. The moss allow water to drain and looks as lush and green as grass without the maintenance of mowing it.

What are some landscaping ideas for small backyards?

1. Make use of vertical space to grow vines (see how to train clematis now for beautiful blooms by summer). 

2. Add some mirrors in strategic locations to expand the space and to also train flowers

3. Add some dwarf species (like the dwarf ginko tree in our rock garden)

4. Use multiple levels for planters, like small pillars (show below) and shelves placed on the fence (following picture).

small backyard landscape ideas; dry creek bed flanked by ground cover, day lillies and container plants

Hostas work well in planters too!

Adding container plants, like on a shelf, is one idea for small backyard landscape ideas

Here again is a reminder of the progression!

Before and after of Small backyard landscape ideas

Outdoor Garden Decor

When your landscaping is complete, you’ll finally have time to DIY outdoor garden decor. This garden mirror and bathroom light fixture planter are bold choices to upcycle and embellish a junk garden!

Pin Small Backyard Garden Ideas

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Pinnable image for small backyard landscape ideas

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13 thoughts on “Small Backyard Landscape Ideas: Backyard Oasis

  1. That an amazing transformation. You and hubby did a great job. Now tit is time to sit back with a glass wine wine and enjoy your hard work.

  2. Yikes, I would have done my nut if some creature messed around with the hose like that 😀

    You really have such a beautiful garden, Sara. It must make you a little sad when the Canadian Winter rolls in and you can’t enjoy your oasis fully. I’d be staring out the window everyday waiting for Spring time.

    One day if we’re lucky we’ll meet up (on your side of the world or mine – I hope) and I’ll will gladly spend hours helping with landscaping with you. I always tell the hubby we don’t need a gym, when a garden workout if way more fun and rewarding.

    • I do certainly get sad that our gardening window is so brief. If only we could move Canada to a more temperate corner of the world 🤣. It would be so lovely to meet up one day!

  3. I find landscaping intimidating but you did such a great job! I have to remember to take it in small chunks!

    • That’s the real trick so you don’t get overwhelmed by the enormity of it!

        • We planted Irish moss (sagina subulata). It takes a while to establish but spreads nicely.

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