This pic is of 4 yrs. ago. Today the living room door to the backyard would be about where the white spindles are shown. The backyard is no less than this from the turmoils of construction.

In Missouri, snow is finally gone (for now). It's been a tough winter. We are very eager to enjoy our backyard. We put in an outdoor room last year! These are pictures. Very excited to see the plants that make it through the winter and continue creating a backyard retreat! Lights and more flowers on the agenda for this year!

@econroy, what kind of white flower/plant is that in your third picture?

Not a lot to work with, as this is actually on top of our two car garage...oasis on the alley. Pretty nice for urban living :)

Hi Olivia - which plants are you asking about?

Can't wait to see grass again! Been a l o n g winter!

Sorry. Can't seem to put multiple pics up today!

We worked with the little bit of space you get in a backyard here in So. Cal.

I have a lake on one side and preserve on the other. Can you spot the bobcat in the photo?

Is he sitting on a lounge chair by the pool?

Yes,! Very cool.

We're perched on a rather steep rise, so our backyard is actually our meadow by the river. Our dogs love it.

This is our back yard as is. We are considering adding a waterfall, fish pond, and fire pit. Thoughts?

@econroy- the white flower on the left in this photo.
http://st.houzz.com/simgs/1392c038030a6c29_7-1979/home-design.jpg

Olivia, not my yard but it may be an oak leaf hydrangea.

No Mark. Lol. I am afraid to let my dogs off the lanai because you never know what's out there. They would be a snack for the Gator that we used to have. My house is on the Space Coast of Fl so sometimes we see rockets. No more shuttles anymore :(

Kathrynecheng water features and fires really add to beauty of a yard. We have a large fountain and fire table. Listening to the water flow and watching flames can be very relaxing. Guests love it too. Would highly recommend you add them to your space!

Hi Olivia - it is a limelight hydrangea tree. They start flowering in a light green and then become white and then pinkish. I love them. I have 4 of them in my yard and would put 4 more if I had the space. I also have oakleaf hydrangeas (good guess saratogaswizzlestick) in the back corner behind the fireplace and then endless summer hydrangeas around the service berry tree. (Can one really have too many hydrangeas? :)) Here is a picture as the trees moved to fall.

Our backyard is our vacation home. We chose to develop the yard instead of a cottage and now we have the fastest commute to our "getaway".

maybe it's bored husband fever! Because I have the same thing, He is always showing me ice/art work.

Ugh.....my backyard......you don't want to know. We just cleared out some old brush from the back and tore down 30-year-old chain link fencing. Ripped out a large old deck that some moron had built over some beautiful brick steps. We are almost done with all the clearing out, then we are having new privacy fence installed, are redoing the patio, and are planning to build a chicken coop. :-) Maybe one day it will get landscaped, but we are still working on the front yard....... Never a boring day on the old homestead...... lol

Thanks econroy. Your garden is lovely. I suspected that they were hydrangeas but I was hoping you would say something else. Hydrangeas would look nice in our garden but we are in the Caribbean where we get full sun all day and I can't find a shaded area for them. Not sure how they would fair in full sun all day in the tropics. The experiment begins :)

Our backyard is a blank slate! We finally had some work done after 22 years. We filled the dirt borders with gravel so we could add some planters. That was months ago. Any suggestions?

We live in the city our yard is the size of a postage stamp so, we opted for an all deck yard with a raised urban vegetable garden and a dog run along the righthand side for our three dogs. Two more months before we move the country! I'm sure the dogs will be happy with that decision

All of those snow pictures and talk of snow make me miss my childhood winters in Iowa. Sledding, snow ball fights, snowmen ... then again, shoveling snow is back breaking work. Trade off?
I don't know ... but imagine when you snow melts and what you've got is a lush green lawn with no work ... No reseeding, watering, fertilizing ... it's a reality with EasyTurf.
Cheers!
George
http://www.houzz.com/projects/82915/Backyard-Installations

Another Iowan. We have 3 on one thread to ties to Perry and Ankeny.

We've only made tiny inroads on the back yard landscaping. I wanted to get this bed in right away, to block the view of the house across the canal. We have also learned the woman who lives there talks on her phone out on her porch. We can hear every word...very clearly! We may have to add further depth.

Thanks for the encouraging words, amoliveira ! We got an enormously high quote for the type of contemporary look we'd like (based on concept images from Houzz), so I've begun having second thoughts about it.

My tiny garden, now in winter. Grass to be replaced with pea gravel someday.

and some more

Here are different shots of our backyard in Southern California

different times of the year it looks different

This is the very satisfying result of two years of working evenings and weekends while in school full time. It is a townhouse so there isn't much space but we could easily host about 25 people for a bonfire. In the spring there will also be flowering bushes in the planters. It used to be overgrown weeds and a rotting tree stump surrounded by a 30 year old split rail fence.

Lots of free flowing garden with "secret" paths set against an uber modern house.

This is the view from our living room through the lanai into the backyard of our vacation home in Bonita Springs, FL

Our little backyard in Alexandria, Egypt.

Day before big snow in Weddington, NC. If you look closely to the right, you can see the last of 20 deer to make their way thru the yard. Snow is gone now!

At present it looks like Siberia. In the summer it looks like this.

Although this isn't my backyard (I live in a city with no yard), it is one of my customers backyards with their newly purchased outdoor sectional couch set.

In progress

We actually have rain today! We are is southern Ca. As you see we are very child friendly.

Love seeing all these beautiful spaces! What a treat!

Winter wonderland at the Vermont farmhouse...day and night.

Here are some photos from the garden last year - right now it is covered in snow!

Hopefully the last snow of the winter in Southern Maryland...

Here is mine today (May 5th 2016)... Ontario, Canada

Need advise on landscaping/decorating! THANKS!

Lovely home space to work with. More rooms, curves and vertical aspects

We have an acreage that's in the rolling hills. Here are 3 views of the everchanging scene in the seasons. The middle one was taken today.

Gorgeous. "What a wonderful world..."

Our SE MI backyard. Our land is 1/2 mile deep so it goes beyond the trees in the back center.

This is our backyard at our NE MI home. This one is currently under construction after my anti-deer fence was finished last November. My goal is no grass, all islands of perennials. We're in a community where fences are to be see-through non-chain-link for aesthetics and safety purposes. This is a hunting-fishing private club with 400 homes and 13,500 acres. The home we bought has history and during the ownership of a previous owner had a beautiful yard full of flowers. After she got sick and moved out it all died off and overgrew. Until now, I was fighting the deer. The previous owner only had black plastic bird netting on green stakes and the deer would just hop over or walk through it. Now, they just stand on the outside looking in.