In recent years, studies have shown that most people spend right around 90% of their time indoors. People are usually inside their homes or inside their offices for the most part throughout the average day.
With the weather starting to get nicer in the Chicago area this spring, you should set your sights on trying to get out of this habit. You should get outside as often as you can, especially if you are lucky enough to have a residential patio right outside your home.
There are so many patio landscaping ideas that you can put to the test to make your patio more appealing. You will want to spend as much time as you possibly can out on your patio after you’re finished making the right patio improvements.
Here are 13 ways in which you can improve your patio landscaping by leaps and bounds this spring.
1. Surround Your Patio with a Lush Green Lawn
First things first: Before you start trying to come up with the perfect plan for your patio landscaping, you will need to make sure your yard is in great shape. You won’t want to spend much time sitting on your patio looking out into a yard that has dying or even dead grass in it.
With this in mind, you should look around at your local landscaping options in the Chicago area and find one that can provide you with a lush green lawn. It will instantly improve the appearance of your backyard and motivate you to get your patio landscaping in good order like never before.
2. Position Bushes Around the Perimeter of Your Patio
While your lawn is obviously going to be tied into your patio landscaping because of how close it will be, you should try to create some separation between the two. A good way to do this will be by surrounding the perimeter of your patio with beautiful bushes.
These bushes will serve two purposes when you put them around your patio. They will give you the separation you’re looking for between your lawn and patio while also providing your patio with a little bit of privacy at the same time.
3. Plant Large Hedges Around Your Yard for Privacy
If your backyard is already relatively private, you might be able to get away with using just a few bushes around your patio to keep it private. But if you live close to your neighbors, you might need to kick things up a notch when it comes to making your yard as private as you can.
There are large hedges that you can plant all around your yard that will eventually grow to make it every bit as private as you would like it to be. You won’t need to worry about your neighbors seeing what’s going on in your backyard when you have these hedges in place.
4. Sprinkle Flowers Around Your Patio to Add Pops of Color
The bushes and hedges that you plant in your backyard will add some much-needed greenery to the mix. But you will want to find ways to get some color into your patio area as well.
It will be simple enough to do it by planting flowers around your patio that’ll give you all the color you could ever ask for. These flowers will also help to soften the look of the concrete or stone that was used to create your patio in the first place.
5. Consider Planting One or Two Trees Near Your Patio
You are going to want to be careful about planting too many trees close to your patio. You are also going to want to be careful about which types of trees you decide to plant near a patio.
The roots from trees could potentially grow in the direction of your patio and cause it to crack. A good landscaping company will be able to guide you in the right direction and show you which trees would look great in your patio area without compromising its structural integrity.
6. Grow Flowering Vines Vertically Around Your Patio
When you are kicking around patio landscaping ideas, you shouldn’t feel like you can only plant things on the ground surrounding your patio. You might want to also consider growing flowering vines that will grow vertically up around your patio.
To do this, you will need to have something like an arbor installed that will provide a place for these vines to grow. It will take some time for them to begin to fill in, but once they do, you will be impressed with how much they add to your patio space.
7. Look into Creating a Vertical Garden on Your Patio
Flowering vines are not the only things that you can grow vertically near a patio. If you really want to go the extra mile, you might want to look into the possibility of setting up a vertical garden on your patio.
This would be a wonderful idea for those who have a blank wall on their patio right now. You can add some landscaping touches to this wall while also growing food that your family can eat in the spring and summer months.
8. Place Potted Trees, Plants, Flowers, Etc. on Your Patio
Would you like to keep the design for your patio landscaping looking fresh all the time? An effective way to do this is by placing potted trees, plants, flowers, etc. on it.
You will be able to move these potted plants around as you see fit when you are entertaining on your patio. You will also be able to bring in any plants that might not be able to survive cold Chicago winters once the fall and winter roll around again.
9. Hang Potted Plants on Your Patio
In addition to positioning potted plants on the ground on your patio, you can also hang some of them up on your patio if you want to take this approach. You can hang them from something like an arbor or a pergola.
There are also poles you can buy that are designed to hang plants. They will be perfect for those who don’t currently have structures that they can hang smaller potted plants from.
10. Spice Up Your Patio with Annuals
Another good way to mix things up on your patio when it comes to your landscaping is by placing annuals out on it from time to time. There are tons of different types of annuals that you can buy throughout the year.
You are, of course, welcome to plant annuals around your patio if you love certain ones that much. But you are also free to place them in pots on your patio at times if you would prefer to only have them present for short periods of time.
11. Install Raised Garden Beds on Your Patio
Earlier, we touched on how creating a vertical garden on your patio might be a great idea. Installing raised garden beds on it would be another fantastic way to grow some food on your patio while adding even more landscaping touches to it.
You will have the flexibility to move raised garden beds around in a lot of cases so that they’re able to get the right amount of sun and rain throughout the week.
12. Plant Things in Between Pavers Near Your Patio
If you plan on spending time out enjoying your lawn on a regular basis, you might want to lay down some pavers to create walking paths for people. When you do, you may also want to leave some space in between them so that you can add small plants to these spaces to liven up their look.
These are the kinds of small details that will take patio landscaping to the next level. They will make your whole patio area look so much better without making your landscaping touches feel too overwhelming.
13. Add Landscape Lighting Around Your Patio Area
You are probably going to want to spend at least some time sitting out on your patio at night this spring, summer, and even fall. You will want to incorporate some outdoor lighting into the mix to make this possible.
Why not kill two birds with one stone by adding landscape lighting to your patio area? It will shine a literal light on some of your best patio landscaping features while also giving you some light so that you can see on your patio once the sun goes down each day.
Let Us Help You Bring Patio Landscaping Ideas to Life
These are just some of the patio ideas that you can use when you are working on your patio landscaping. There are also so many other wonderful landscaping ideas that you can use when you are trying to make patio improvements.
Martin John Company can take any patio landscaping ideas you have and work to bring them to life. We can also suggest patio ideas you may not have considered before and tell you why they would work well in your patio area.
Contact us today to start reworking your patio landscaping design to make it more effective.