Backyard Projects

• A backyard trellis.
  
  There are probably a million and one projects you can do for your backyard. It can become a natural sanctuary, a place to entertain guests, or a special place just for you.
  
  Putting up a gazebo is an excellent and classy place in which to entertain guests. You can have a gazebo almost any size and they will lend an air of distinction to any backyard that they grace.
  
  Flowered trellises along walkways or entrance ways bring back memories of the good old days. A blooming trellis is one of the happiest ways to welcome guests, and their innate beauty will always leave everyone smiling.
  
  Cut out a plot in your backyard and go wild. Native plants and wildflowers can be obtained or sourced from any Department of Natural Resources, and wildflowers along with native grasses make for a positively lovely sitting area.
  
  Build a deck with a hot tub included. Languishing away the time in a bubbling hot tub on a deck, surrounded by trees or a natural landscape, might be as close to heaven as any mere mortal can possibly get.
  
  

A Garden Pond

• Garden pond with waterfall.
  
  One of the most delightful of all home or garden projects is to put in a garden pond. There are many prebuilt plastic shells that can literally be dug into the ground, decorated with rocks and plants, filled with water, and you are good to go. Add in a waterfall and a filtration system and, except for seasonal maintenance, that pond will become the focus of your yard.
  
  Remember, all animals are attracted to water, and if you want to naturalize your lawn and garden area while bringing in wildlife, a garden pond is the perfect place to start.
  
  

New and Different Vegetables

• Unique vegetables make gardening fun.
  
  Don't leave the vegetable garden out of your pondering, because you don't always have to grow the same old vegetables every year.
  
  Tomatoes come in all sorts of shapes and colors, and people will marvel at ones that turn white or golden yellow when ripe. Some tomatoes are long and lean, and look more like peppers than tomatoes. Imagine when someone bites into one of those.
  
  You don't have to plant the same old peppers either. Hybrid sweet types also come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, many of which look like blazing hot jalapenos but are delectably sweet instead.
  
  There are white eggplants, melt-in-your mouth melons, snap peas, carrot-like radishes, celeriac (which is a large ball-shaped vegetable that tastes just like celery), and even a plant called stevia that produces incredibly sweet leaves that you can grind up to replace sugar in things such as coffee or tea.
  
  Go online or find and garden catalogs that offer different and unique vegetables to make your garden a fun place to visit---then watch everyone stop over at your garden just to see what's growing.