Once you have a residential fence in your yard that marks your property, the sky’s the limit on what you can do to make your outdoor living area your own with some DIY landscaping ideas. Homeowners always ask us about fence landscaping ideas after their residential fence installation, especially when that fence borders a newly constructed home. Some of the obvious choices for DIY landscaping ideas would be to add a deck or a patio to create a dedicated outdoor living space, which often requires a bit of professional expertise to get the job done. However, when it comes to landscaping your backyard, there are plenty of DIY landscaping ideas that you can do—especially with a limited budget—to enhance your residential fence and create a gorgeous oasis in your yard.
Below are a few fence landscaping ideas that I’d recommend and the good news is that you can do almost any of them in an afternoon so you still have time left in your weekend to enjoy your outdoor living space!
Plot a Garden for Added Beauty
The best fence landscaping ideas to enhance a residential fence is to create your own home garden. With a few bags of soil, some seeds, and a watering hose, you can pretty much create any kind of garden you choose. I like the idea of two separate gardens—one for flowers to add a bit of color to the yard, and one for fruits and vegetables so that you can use them to make either a fresh salad or add flavor to a meal with herbs. If you don’t want to wait for your garden to grow on its own, there are plenty of nurseries you can go to and buy plants to transfer into the ground.
One tip I have for anyone planting a garden for the first time is to sit down and plot what will go in your garden. Remember that not all flowers and shrubs grow the same way (planting taller blooming flowers in front of smaller ones is not helpful—I know…from personal experience); you also need to know how much space is required for the plants to root. If you enjoy getting inspiration from what others have done, go spend an afternoon (or several long nights) combing Pinterest to get garden ideas. If you’re new to home ownership and have never gardened before, ask someone in the know to give you some tips on what to plant.
Add Equipment to Create a Self-Watering Garden
One of our clients who lives in a town home community designed a truly cool garden that waters itself! All you need to do is install soaker hoses that run through the garden and attach them to a faucet by way of a timer that waters the garden on a regular schedule. This is great for when it gets hot outside and you don’t want to spend a lot of time having to water individual flowers and shrubs.
Peace Out With a Rock Garden
If you lack a green thumb and don’t want to have to deal with watering flowers day in and day out, consider creating your own personal rock garden. Nowadays it’s easy to buy a wide assortment of rocks—including ones that you can even sit on—to build your own Asian-inspired Zen area. One of our clients built a really cool Zen garden that was almost hidden from view by tall shrubs, so you had to walk through an opening to discover this perfect rock garden. I like these kinds of gardens as I’m always looking for a place to sit and think in peace and quiet while my children are indoors playing video games or watching football!
Other fence landscaping ideas could be to build a rock garden. All you need to do to get started is purchase several bags of gravel from your local nursery or home improvement store to cover the area. Then you find large rocks to create a path, a pattern or even small seating area. If you can’t find rocks that are perfect for sitting, you can also buy or build a small bench. The great thing about a rock garden is that you can add or swap out rocks over time to get the look and feel you really want as well as plant shrubs to create shade or some privacy so you can enjoy this great sitting space outside.
Get Edgy and Build Your Own
If your fence borders an existing garden or you’re planting one on your own, adding an edge to your garden can turn into DIY landscaping ideas by adding a lot of visual appeal to your space. Go to any home improvement stores and you’ll find a wide variety of stone and brick you can use to edge your garden. In fact, we recommend visiting Irwin Stone, located just around the corner from us in Frederick. You can find great inspiration among their materials that you either can pack in your trunk or have delivered to your home.
Are you the more creative type or environmentally friendly? If so, you can use either recycled or found materials such as logs, seashells, glass bottles, bowling balls, or even dinner plates to create a unique edge for your garden. I once saw a large yard edged with brightly colored Fiesta ware—it looked as if a rainbow had landed in the front yard!
Build a Pathway With Stone
If you’re not into pavers as a landscaping option, you can add some natural beauty in your yard with a stone pathway that leads to your gate. Much like building a fence, you can create a stepping stone path by first mapping out and driving stakes in the ground at each end of its destination and then attach string to create your outline. The key to a good pathway is making sure you measure your stones so that there’s one under foot for each step. To create large enough holes for the stones, use a half-moon edger and get a supply of stone dust so that your stones sit on a stable base.
Just Add Water and Relax
I don’t know about you, but I am someone who could sit and listen to the sound of running water for hours on end. It’s very calming. If you want to enhance both your fence and your peace of mind, add some sort of water feature to your yard. You can either buy pre-made fountains or purchase a kit and build your own. You can easily—and cost-effectively—build your own fountain with just a wide container, a motor and a bubbler. You can also build a small waterfall or pond in your yard if you’re truly adventurous!
Get Your Fence and Yard Ready for its Close-Up: Add Lighting
If you want to enhance your fence and your yard, add lighting! If you love sitting out under the stars, a bit of lighting adds great visual appeal to the experience. You can either buy solar powered lights or lay piping underground so you can wire your entire yard for dramatic lighting at night. Our client who put soaker hoses on timers also runs lights on timers so that the backyard lights up every day at dusk. You can either put lights in the ground or hang them from your fence.
Need to Build a Fence?
If you have a blank canvas in your yard and are ready to create the perfect outdoor oasis, call us or contact us today and one of our expert fence consultants will work with you to design a fence solution to create the perfect environment of your dreams!
Got questions? Take advantage of our live chat feature (click on the left side of the page!) or stop by our headquarters in Frederick, MD and we’ll be more than happy to help you design a backyard environment that meets your needs and your budget! We’ll even give you tips on some of our preferred vendors who all sell materials you can use to enhance your new fence!
