Back Yard Wishes & New Seating Area Dreams

Sitting on my back deck with a drink in my hand and finding myself amazed at having never blogged back here before. Truth is our back deck has always seemed like such a wasted space. I’ve always wanted to use it but the way we have it set up allows for meals only. Sure the dog comes out here, but really, when it’s super bright and the sun sets back here there is no real place to hide.

  I think when we bought this house we had grand dreams of having people over for barbecues and that we’d always have friends around. Truth is, all our friends like their own houses and want to have barbecues there. Our families have much better patios with much better privacy. So our back deck lays empty and I’ll admit a little overgrown.

I keep looking at alternative options for the space back here and have really wanted to make it a more functional space for what we would use it for – an oasis in the city. A spot for us to want to spend time. When we moved in the backyard was broken up into two areas, a big wooden deck and a grassy area that had two lilac bushes and a purple sandcherry. The bushes weren’t that big and we didn’t have much shade at all. We live in a townhouse and all the houses in the neighbourhood all looked in on the same spot. We felt we didn’t have much privacy, even if we did have a 6ft fence.

  Zoom 4 years later and the lilac bushes are now as full as trees. When in bloom we can no longer see directly into the rear neighbours house. It gives us both a bit of much needed space from each other. The neighbours with the mouthy kids who were always on their trampoline and throwing things into our yard have put in a swimming pool and the mouthy kids are teenagers that prefer to stay inside with their video games. There is a certain amount of warmth out here and I really want to use the space more effectively.

I’ve been very actively using Pinterest to gather certain ideas and images for how to have a gorgeous garden. It’s not all about the plants, because lets face, I am willing to do a couple easy vegetables, but I really want my backyard to be a calm oasis. If you haven’t used Pinterest, I recommend reading this blog I wrote back in 2011 when I was all in love with Pinterest. I’m still in love, but don’t start all conversations with “I saw this ___ on pinterest.”

  Some of the best ideas I’ve seen and pinned for small gardens include paths, different planting to seperate areas, eclectic pieces of reclaimed furniture and the most important thing my back yard garden would need is a reading area/bench for quiet reflection. I’ve seen some fantastic ideas using pallets, and would love to have some sort of bench seating area made out of pallets with cushions on the top. I’d also love a herb garden made from a pallet. So many ideas!

For the meantime, I think I’ll just sit back here and ponder all the wonderful choices…

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