When it comes to the back yard, your designs should center around maximizing the amount of usable living space you have, rather than focusing totally on the appearance of the space as in the front yard.

Define your Needs

The first thing to consider when designing your back yard is what you want out of the space. Do you want a place for your children to play? Or, would you prefer an entertainment area with a barbecue and eating area, or a quiet space with a small pond, for relaxation? Perhaps you would like a flower garden, herb garden, or vegetable patch, or an easy-care space that doesn't require you to spend your weekends doing maintenance work?

One of the most important considerations at this stage is deciding how much time you are willing to spend on maintenance. If you don't want to spend large amounts of time on yard maintenance work and gardening, you'll need to focus on creating low-maintenance spaces and choosing plants that don't require special care.

Create Clearly Defined Spaces

Once you know what needs your back yard will be designed to fulfill, you can divide up the space into different areas that can carry out those functions. This is a particularly important aspect of design, not only because you need to ensure that each are has enough space, but also because you want to create clearly-defined spaces that transition into each other, to create a harmonious overall effect.

Mapping your Back Yard

One of the best ways of creating attractive spaces that fulfill your desired functions is to first create a map of the space you're working with. Measure out your back yard, and use graph paper to create a map of the space. Then, mark out any existing structures such as swimming pool, garden shed, patio and other fixtures.

Next, take another walk in your back yard, and map the natural flow of traffic to the different areas. For example, on your map plot out the movement paths you take to reach the pool, shed, and other fixtures. These will be the areas where you place walkways or paths. Adding walkways is a great way of creating 'rooms' in the back yard, which can then be designed with different functions in mind. With these elements mapped out, you can then plan how to add plants, trees and shrubs to complement the different areas, and plan the uses for each area you have created.

Working with what you Have

If your back yard already has some elements in place-such as a swimming pool or barbecue area-your new designs will need to take these existing fixtures into account.

You'll also need to work with or modify the existing terrain. For example, if your back yard is on a gentle slope, you may want to have that slope partially or fully leveled to provide flat surfaces that are easier to work with. Partial leveling to create tiers of different levels is a great way of adding interest to the back yard, and of creating 'rooms' that define the different areas of the space.

Privacy in the Back Yard

Your front yard is a more public space-in the back yard, privacy is generally a much more important issue. A high fence or tall plants and trees will help to create a private space, and reduce the effects of noise from surrounding neighbors.

Note that if your back yard is not currently fenced and you want to add one, you may need to check local building codes and make sure you know where you property boundaries are, to ensure that you build your fence according to code and within your boundaries.

Choosing Plants

When choosing plants, consider the following factors:

• The height and girth of fully mature trees and shrubs-how much space will these take up once they reach maturity? Trees and shrubs should be planted so that their root systems do not cause disturbances as they grow.

• Space and height are also important considerations when creating back yard 'rooms'. Taller plants can be used to create areas of privacy within the yard and help to create a feeling of having separate spaces that serve different functions.

• Are you choosing plants that are suitable for your climate? In a hot, dry climate choosing drought-resistant plants is crucial, and choosing trees and shrubs that tolerate frost and cold weather is important if you live in an area that experiences very cold winters.

• Choose plants with different textures and interest features in terms of leaf length and shape, light and dark-colored leaves, and the overall shape of the plant. In general, choose a greater number of fine-textured plants and use coarser-textured plants for accents.

• Choose plants that flower at different times to create interest in the yard all year round.