Add Color and Privacy to a Small Backyard

If you live in the city, chances are your backyard is just about as big as a postage stamp. If you are fortunate, it’s about 50 feet wide, and offers you little privacy from the neighbors. Here are a few suggestions that will help you add some color, and protect your backyard space from the eyes of prying or well-meaning neighbors without putting up a tall privacy fence.

One way to create a natural-looking border for a patio or porch is by planting a vertical box garden. Do this by building a wooden frame to hold potted plants. Stain the wood for a finished look, or leave it to weather naturally with the elements. Slide the pots back and forth or change them around to vary their appearance from day to day. Use a movable frame to slide the garden back and forth as you prefer, or secure the support posts in the ground beside the patio for stability. In this way, you will have an endless supply of interchangeable, living, growing, garden decorating choices.

Another option is to use trellises to train climbing vines that will grow and shield you from view. Many different varieties of climbing plants can provide you with variegated color and even a light floral scent. Rose bushes, passion flower, honeysuckle, clematis, and morning glories all are excellent, colorful choices.

If you prefer, you can border your backyard or patio with small shrubs and miniature trees that will offer a measure of privacy as they grow. Select ornamental shrubs such as lilacs, redbuds, or flowering crabapple. Or, if you prefer not to clean the patio regularly, choose shrubs that don’t flower. Wax myrtles, barberry shrubs, and juniper bushes typically require less cleaning and maintenance than their flowering counterparts.

Some miniature trees that can offer a slightly more secluded space include Japanese maples, dwarf plum trees, or small evergreens. Of course, if you choose trees that lose their leaves each fall, you will pay a small price for the beautiful color that will surround your patio during the spring and fall. Be prepared to rake those leaves, and sweep the patio or porch clean!

A slightly different twist on using miniature trees for privacy involves creating what is known as a living fence. Use dwarf fruit trees such as apple or peach, or use flowering ornamental trees like magnolias or dogwood. Build a frame of wooden posts about 8 feet apart, and string wire between the posts. Plant the trees about three feet apart. During the first few years, you will need to spend extra time cutting back, or pruning, the branches, and tying them together so that they intertwine as they grow.

Of course, none of these options may work well for you, or perhaps you just don’t enjoy the amount of maintenance gardening some of these options require. In that case, you can always build a decorative fence or wall. There are a number of attractive options from which you can choose, and you can still have that little bit of privacy that makes your house a home.

Is Your Roof Growing Trees?

Have you ever seen a roof growing trees? As absurd as this may sound, it can – and does – happen! Many people neglect regular gutter maintenance. As a result, their gutters clog up with leaves, plants, organic materials, and other debris. Over time, seeds can take root and grow in the organic compost that forms.

Plants and trees growing in your gutters can be unsightly, and cause people to make embarrassing comments about the way you keep up your property, but they don’t really do any harm to your house, right? Wrong!

Gutters do much more than just keep the rain from running off the roof and onto your porch, or showering you when you walk out the door. Proper gutter maintenance can keep you from making all kinds of repairs because of water damage.

For example, if the gutters of your house become clogged, the water from the roof runs down the side of the house. Over a period of time, this can cause wooden siding to warp, or cause mold to grow on vinyl siding. It can also rot the boards just underneath the shingles on your roof, causing damage to the shingles and causing the roof to leak.

Furthermore, if the gutters aren’t cleaned regularly, the water from the roof will pool alongside the foundation of your house. The water will seep through the foundation and cause moisture to enter your basement. This moisture can cause mold to form, which will limit or eliminate any basement decorating options you may have.

Mold is more than just an annoyance. Severe cases of mold can cause breathing problems and increase allergies in sensitive people. Occasionally, mold growth becomes so uncontrollable that houses have to be condemned and torn down because it cannot be effectively treated!

One thing that you can do to help prevent your gutters from becoming filled with leaves and other organic materials is to limit the number of tree branches that overhang your roof. Even if you do this though, you’re going to have to clean the gutters a couple of times each year in order to prevent them from becoming clogged.

If your health problems prevent you from easily climbing a ladder, consider hiring a handyman to do this messy work for you. Don’t risk your health attacking the problem on your own. Sometimes, spending a little money to get things done can help you avoid paying big doctor bills for a nasty fall!

If you’re set on doing the chore yourself, or don’t have the money to hire someone to do it, there are inexpensive pole attachments you can purchase to help you with this bothersome task.

If you decide to climb the ladder and do it by hand, wear gloves so you don’t get cut by sharp metal. Clean out the worst of the muck, and use a hose to spray the gutter clean. If you notice a section of gutter with loose metal or a hole, replace it as soon as possible. This small investment of time and money can help you keep your investment in your house healthy!