DIY Backyard Oasis

So I have been planning a backyard renovation for sometime now...there is an area in our yard that NO grass would grow...nothing but dust!  And our dogs and any breeze would just stir it all up and my porch was constantly COVERED in dirt!

I mean, I never wanted to be out there because I'd be disgusted by the way it looked! Which in turn meant my kids could never play outside.

Well, I had had ENOUGH!  And I planned a beautiful patio garden on a budget.

A $200 budget.

And here it is...

 We had a great time and I REALLY REALLY LOVE IT!!!

It really is an oasis to sit around the flowers with the candles going and watch the kiddo's play in the backyard.  

Plus, it was super cheap and we did it all in 2 days!

First, you start out with a few land scape timbers.  You could use any kind of border you want, but we snagged these suckers for free so that's what we went with.  We got a few 8" nails, pre-drilled the holes and staked them to the ground to keep em from rolling around.

So plan where you want it and how big you want it and pull up the turf (or in our case, lack there of).  Then level the ground.  We went the extra mile and really loosened the dirt to make it easy to level the stones, that way we could save a little $$$ and not have to buy bags of leveling sand.

Then, place your stones.  We made it easy on ourselves and used a 2x4 to space them.  No measuring!  So laying them down was super quick.  We used 1x1 concrete pavers in the "sand stone color".  Not the most glamorous choice in stone, but economical at $1.27 a piece.  We did 40 pavers in 5 rows of eight.

I used some chairs I already had and used it to make sure everything was level.

The mulch was the only thing I splurged on...I wanted cedar.

I then planned where I wanted the flowers.  When you go to get flowers...check out the sales!  There are usually good sales on annuals at the beginning of the season.  

I also went super cheap on pots.  I wanted ceramic (I already had one), but hey plastic will do.  I snagged a bunch at the Dollar Tree, some in that horrible, fake terra cotta color.  No problem, I spray painted them green. I filled in the corners of the garden with flowers as well.

Then, to spruce it up even more, I did some DIY garden spheres from my decor ball tut.

Just spray paint a dowel rod and you know the rest.  I LOVE how they turned out!  I plan on making more...

I added some things I already had on hand such as some plant stands, the chairs and the fire pit and I got a backyard oasis...and the grand total with tax for everything from the glass beads and Styrofoam balls to the cedar mulch and pavers was only $189.85.

I plan on adding more and more flowers a little at a time, as well as a few more pavers leading to the gate.  But the next big step for the garden will be a DIY pergola!

xoxo

Ginger