How to Make Your Backyard Paradise This Summer
It starts in the Spring: The Ultimate TOP 7 Lawn Readiness Tips
Summer has arrived, and it’s now the season to be outdoors. You will have a perfect time for late-night evenings on the patio, neighborhood socials or backyard get-togethers, and backyard barbecues, time with family, football games in the yard, and plenty of excitement. To enjoy spending time outdoors, you don’t need to travel to an exotic and luxurious location. You can have a summer paradise in your backyard with some of these activities below. Choose your favorites out of them or, better yet, work your way all season long.
Toddlers, Tykes and Tweens
Outdoor play will always be prime real estate for even the youngest Backyardigans. A good general base swing set can never be out of style to keep your child interested, involved, and interactive. While proven to enhance a child's fine motor skills, balance, independence, and growth, the prime years begin around ages 2 to 5 and expand as your child grows
Young and swingle
A solid wood swing set can give your entire family a lifetime of endurance, expansion, and landscaping appeal for 20-plus years with maintenance. Readily adaptable, interchangeable, and always a stalwart favorite, the swing set starts your family off safely and securely.
Add ons like roofed clubhouses, multi-level rope climbs, catwalks, and slides transform the swing set into a jungle gym of wild proportions. Many a youth has recommissioned a sandbox into a construction zone for play trucks, sandcastle contest beach theme, or an outdoor mud pie bake-off challenge. When used as a landing pad after a space rocket launch from the swing seat, it takes away a parent's stress of scraped knees and bloody elbows too.
Goodnight with flashlights
Camping out in the backyard is a terrific treat and twist on the sleep-over slumber scene. Even parents admit to enjoying socializing with a few nights spent snuggled into a sleeping bag while making sure to keep the wilderness at bay. After an evening of roasted mallows and a ghost story or two, a special way to create bonding memories is with an overnight adventure. Count the stars, find the planets, or have one last round of flashlight hide and seek before bedding down for the night. To ease any youngster's apprehensive moments, some solar-charged ground lights that outline a clear path into the safety of the back porch entry will add a sense of comfort to runaway imaginations.
Waterpark wonderland
The heat beating DIY water attractions can provide a cool respite from an expense risk to a chill, safe thrill. While inflatable backyard water park bouncers, slides, and carpet rides are highly sought after both for residential purchase or via party rental sources, you can also recreate your custom attractions with affordable slip and slide racing mats made with plain plastic sheeting cand baby oil or shampoo. Turn a regular sprinkler and hose into an overhead spray splash misting hydration spot with some pool noodles pierced with randomly spaced drill holes. PVC pipes can undergo the same and become support beams for the rain forest and if conducive, be double suited out to a vegetable garden as an additional source of irrigation. Water balloon pinatas, dodge ball, and splash tag offer the thrill of a chase with a chilling reward when caught and a good old-fashioned water cannon blaster adds just the right amount of competitive spirit to team-themed water fun.
Independent and involved (Teens)
The teen scene
Partake, plan and party
Finally, nothing appeals more to your teen and peers than the freedom to turn the backyard into a party palace with BBQ access, music, snacks, and limited parental patronage. Encourage a backyard party to keep the teens in a safe space and while they are outside, host your own adult version inside where any chaperones can also indulge in a potluck takeout, movie, or card game. Keep on the good side of the fence with your neighbors by informing them in advance or inviting them to attend. Set a reasonable noise level and shutdown time, and check with your city officials for any other bylaws for bonfire allowance, small fireworks, parking, etc.
Ageless activities
Budding artist in the family? Break out the childhood sidewalk chalk and let your teen express some creativity on the trampoline surface. Easily washable, the canvas can be reused over and over. Sporty types can hone their basketball shots with an attached hoop specifically marketed for trampoline use. Twister, anyone? Yes, the old floor mat chestnut where you try to flex, bend, and out tangle your opponent ends up with hilarious results when transferred to a trampoline with colored chalk circles as the spot placers.
Trampoline twists for teen trysts
Turn a trampoline into more than just a gravity air jumper. Even if you have one that's lost it's "spring" appeal, trampolines are perfect places to just chill and lay back while contemplating the woes of teen life. With a few draped sheets and a line or two of outdoor lights, a trampoline with its safety enclosure netting can be rigged into an overnight sleeping pergola fit for a teen. Add a stretched sheet between two inground fence posts or affixed to an exterior wall of the house and start the wifi mirror imaging drive-in movie.
Regreening the great outdoors
Backyard gardening at its best
To the devoted hobbyist, a fertile piece of land in which to pot, plant, and propagate an entire season of earthy edibles never needs to be thwarted due to space limitations. Container planting raised beds, and smaller mounds or crop rotation are super money-saving investments that can involve the entire family or be kept for your peaceful commune. The appeal of container planting is the aesthetic of companioning a wooden crate of tomatoes with a patch of bright marigolds and a few crisp bell peppers. While large backyard gardens are the old faithful, small space creations are gaining new ground.
Landscaping, mowing, and maintenance
At day's end, no matter what you use your backyard for, it's all in the little touches that elevate a simple strip or patch of grass into an entire world of adventure. Keep it maintained and up to snuff with a seasonal pre-greening routine of fertilizing, patching, aerating, and irrigating. By also keeping your garden tools and equipment serviced, you'll be ready to grow when the season says go.
Social landscaping
All-purpose entertainment
From minimal to monumental, poolside to patio, take advantage of every amenity in your plans to create a prime backyard gathering spot. Starting with the bare necessities and growing from there, perhaps the prime picks would be a BBQ with a designated location either on a lawn level bricked patio or higher on a deck.
There is no denying that outdoor dining is still haute cuisine, and you can choose from so many great grills. Gas, propane, charcoal, wood, smokers, rotisseries, or bricked multi pits and chiminea stoves tease and please every fancy. Even a humble rock pit with a grill on an open flame can deliver a perfectly cooked steak with the same ease as a hot dog roasted on a stick.Comfort is essential
When entertaining, you want your guests to feel appreciated, welcomed, and truly considered among your priorities. So when shopping for outdoor furniture, don't skimp on the value of well-made and durable seating, cushions, side tables, and loungers.
Toss out the old aluminum folding hand-me-downs and treat your yard, yourself, and your family to a seasonal upgrade that will last for years. Love seats, rockers, sofas, and reclining loungers can be found for reasonable pre-season rates.
Outside elements can affect the look and integrity of your lawn furniture if not cared for and properly stored off-season. Don't forget to cover it up when anticipating any inclement weather or pack it away.Fine dining
This is a subject that is custom-made for a DIY enthusiast. Transform an old door or rarely used folding table into a master class outdoor dining suite. Partner it with mismatched seating and even a set of China plates to give any celebration or intimate dinner a new charm and whimsy.
Perfect for milestone birthdays, graduations, engagements, anniversaries, or a quiet, intimate prelude to a starry-filled night of romance.Next level nuance
What began as a way to give the guys a place to chill in the garage for a night of poker and football has now taken over the hobby lovers, crafters, book club, and group sharing culture. The culture of men's dens and she-sheds popped up everywhere.
Converting a tool storage shed or old storage garage may be worth the time and effort, depending on the size you need. Still, as a common source, most folks will budget for a new shed delivered and preassembled or buy a piece by piece precut ready to assemble kit.