Trends and Ideas for an Eco-Friendly Back Yard

Australia is blessed with incredible climate and a patchwork of diverse biomes, which means that, if you live in a house in one of its many urban areas, you get a chance to create your own imaginative garden in the back yard. However, faced with climate change and droughts it can be a challenge to create a truly admirable green oasis, but if you are willing to try, here are some trends and ideas for an eco-friendly back yard.

Always go native

The first rule of eco-landscaping that never fails is to go native. By mimicking the appearance of local surroundings, you will create a back yard that blends in with the region in all the ways that matter, yet it can be significantly lusher. Local plant life is used to the climate conditions and soil quality from the area so you won’t have to spend too much money on maintenance. Furthermore, they are adapted to local plant illnesses and parasites. Remember that Australian landscapes get really diverse since it is a big continent, so be careful about not going too far in every conceivable sense of that word.  

Strategic tree planting

One of the hallmarks of eco-friendly back yards is the shading. The Australian sun can be harsh and you don’t want the more delicate plants to be overexposed to the incessant heat wave of the sunrays. This is why you should approach planting trees very strategically. For example, you should see about planting the trees with big crowns on the western and southern side of your home, so they can create a shade and serve as a “layer of insulation” against the heat.

Go a step further with shade

Still, this doesn’t mean that you should create a small jungle out of your back yard just to create a shade. After all, we are always dealing with limited space. Instead, you should see where you can go a step further with sun protection and purchase some truly elegant shade sails online in order to get a truly stylish shade that doesn’t appear too intrusive or bulky.

Go for LED lights

In order to get that truly magical feel in the backyard garden during the night, you need to acquire more strategically placed outdoor lighting, but there is a catch that comes with that – more lighting means less energy efficiency if you go with incandescent lights. Instead, if you replace virtually all your backyard lights with LED bulbs, you will spend at least 90% less electricity for the same amount of light during the evening. It is an eco-friendly bargain if there ever was one.

Always compost

Create a cistern for your organic compost and keep it in the back yard. Every time when you get some extra food scraps – from fruit and vegetable remains to egg shells, cloth, threads, etc. – you can just throw them into the cistern and, as they decompose, use them later to fertilize your garden. This is a much better choice than going for expensive and very questionable fertilizers made in factories. Just make sure that the cistern is properly sealed in order to avoid an unpleasant miasma spreading through your back yard and into the neighborhood.

Welcome the circle of life

Unless you have a truly heinous pest problem, avoid using insecticides and other poisons. They are bad for the environment and you actually want the natural pollinators such as honeybees, butterflies and other insects in your garden. Still, a misbalance tends to happen from time to time and certain species of insects can easily get too comfortable in your home. In order to ameliorate this, you can also add a few bird houses and bird feeders to the environment in order to get the natural pest control in your eco-friendly back yard.

The key issue about eco-friendly back yard is two-fold – on the one hand you want to have a beautiful, lush back yard that looks the part, and on the other you want to bring the maintenance down to a minimum. With these tips and ideas for trendy, beautiful backyard gardens of comfort, you will definitely get an opportunity to reap the rewards of your hard work and have a getaway spot of your dreams right behind your house.