Landscape Drawing: How to Design Your Own Backyard

The backyard of a home is the place that reflects your personality and what you enjoy doing. It should be the place within your home where you can go and relax or enjoy one of your favorite outdoor hobbies, such as playing a sport, gardening or cooking on the grill. To design the space in your backyard, you need to take into consideration a number of factors such as the amount of space you have and the amount of work that needs to be put toward the project.

List all of the activities that you and other members of your family enjoy doing to determine exactly what you want to place in your backyard and whether or not you have enough room to fit it. If you live in an area where the climate is usually hot and you love to relax in the pool, install one in you backyard -- a smaller size to cool off and relax, something bigger for activity and exercise. Other ideas include a garden if you are interested in gardening, a volleyball area, a basketball court and an entertainment area.

Build a fence to border your backyard. This provides you with added privacy from your neighbors as well as a barrier for your children or pets. If you already have a fence, add some sort of greenery -- such as hanging planters -- to enhance the visual appeal.

Add plants and other greenery to areas that you either want to enhance or hide. For instance, to enhance the backyard design with plants and greenery, add them around the hardscape to accent these pieces. On the other hand, if you have an old pond in the backyard that you are not ready to fill, add tall shrubbery around it so that it is closed off and does not affect the rest of the backyard.

Sketch your ideas on paper so that you have a visual of what needs to be done and how it will come out in the end. This is the time to make any adjustments before acting on the design, especially if you feel as though the project may be overwhelming. Once the adjustments are made, you are able to put your design into action.