Backyard Sanctuary: Minimalist Landscape Design Ideas for Tranquil Living

Your backyard should be your happy place. It should be an area where you can go outside, enjoy nature, and relax. Many backyards are nice, but they have too much going on and can create an atmosphere that’s too distracting to truly relax. Either that or there’s too much maintenance required in your yard, and you never get to sit down and smell the roses.

The solution is to implement a minimalist landscape design strategy to simplify things. If you’re ready to take a chance, the advice and tips here will help you get started.

Benefits of Minimalist Landscape Design and Creating A Plan

Changing the style of your backyard may seem like a significant endeavor at first. Still, it’s well worth the effort because the minimalist style will provide many unexpected benefits. When there’s less going on outside, you’ll be less anxious because there will be fewer distractions. That’s helped by the fact that a minimalist approach will also require less maintenance so you won’t need to worry about constantly marking things off of your to-do list.

Plus, designing a comfortable place to relax outside will help you to turn off the TV and rediscover the outdoor hobbies you used to enjoy, whether it be bird watching, yoga, painting, or anything else that used to occupy your mind before technology took over.

When you’re thinking about creating a minimalist backyard, you want to start on the right track, so you should create a plan of how you want the space to look and function. By strategizing the perfect space, you’ll have less stressful guesswork as you make your plans a reality.

Make a rough drawing of how you want the backyard to look and consider the flow of movement and how you’ll make getting around as simple as possible. You should also note where you want to place a garden, patio, seating area, or anything else that will perfect the space.

Keep Simple Colors And Designs

While planning, remember that one of the cornerstones of a minimalist design is simplicity, especially when it comes to the colors and shapes you’ll incorporate in the space. Your best bet is to go with a uniform color scheme so everything flows together. You’ll probably also want to avoid bright colors that distract the eye. Instead, consider earthy and neutral colors, like green and brown, that will connect you to nature and help you feel at ease.

Also, keep your shapes simple throughout the yard and consider the use of repetition. Create pathways that use the same simple geometric shapes and patterns. When you’re looking for materials for pathways, consider products like limestone or bamboo that are fairly weather-resistant, so you won’t need to worry about them deteriorating or requiring constant maintenance.

Simplicity continues to be the name of the game when it comes to furniture. Look for seating in earthy tones that match the rest of your yard. Buy a furniture set that includes a table, and you’ll have places to sit, entertain, and eat without adding unnecessary clutter.

Choose Landscaping That Takes Care Of Itself

When it comes to current backyard design trends, many people are focusing on environmentally friendly designs. When choosing flowers and plants for your simplistic yard, look for varieties that are native to the area because they help the local environment and they’re low maintenance. Many plants, like sunflowers, are gorgeous, and they help bees and insects thrive without being a nuisance. You should try to keep a few flowers in bloom whenever possible to encourage those pollinating insects to come and care for the other plants.

When planting a traditional garden, give it the best chance to succeed by positioning and spacing out plants so they get as much sunlight as possible to grow and thrive. If you’re short on space, start a container garden in a wooden planting bed or reuse old gutters as planters.

You can do almost anything more sustainably, including adding a natural pool to your yard that doesn’t use chemicals. Instead, it could use filters and perennial plants to clean the water. In addition to helping the environment, natural pools are also quite stunning and they’re great to swim in when you need to relax.

As a final trick, consider adding artificial ground cover to your yard instead of grass. Ground cover hugs the dirt and doesn’t require excess water, herbicides, or pesticides to stay healthy. You also won’t need to worry about cutting the grass, and it always stays green and soft.

Let The Sun Do Most Of The Work

Harness the power of the sun to create the ultimate eco-friendly backyard sanctuary and reduce energy use at the same time. Solar power continues to evolve as a go-to source of alternative power, and you can use the sun to power most of the items in your yard.

Start with your outdoor lighting. You can use solar path lights and string lights to illuminate your space and provide a safer environment for you and your friends. The sound of flowing water is great for tranquil living, and many fountains use solar panels to power the pumps. You can even use solar energy to power the heater in your natural pool so the water is always the perfect temperature.

Conclusion

There are many ways to make your outdoor space relaxing, eco-friendly, and gorgeous. Do the work necessary to set up your yard now, and you’ll enjoy years of peaceful living in your minimalist backyard oasis.

***

About the Author: Miles is an independent writer with a background in business and a passion for tech, psychology, news, and simply helping people live happy and fulfilled lives. He has lived and traveled all over the United States and continues to expand his awareness and experiences.