Spring Yard Refresh with Fun Backyard Ideas

I’m so glad for spring. I love the warmth and the sunshine after a cold winter. My yard, however, looks pretty pathetic…well truthfully, it looks pretty pathetic year round, but especially after winter. This year, I took our early spring as a sign to do a small little refresh to one area of our yard and I’ve got some super simple backyard ideas for you today.

Let’s just get this out of the way, if you were hoping for amazing ideas that will wow anyone…this is not the place for you. If you are looking for simple ideas that hopefully can’t be killed off….this is the place for you.

I’m no good with plants. My home seems to be a final resting place for most plants. So, when I decided to do a little work to make a part of my yard look decent, I knew I needed to keep it simple and hopefully pick things that could just live on their own with little to no help from me. Let me show you my super simple spring refresh and by simple backyard ideas. 

Sigh. I supposed I must show you the before picture. Pretty pathetic. The bird feeder was on its last leg a few years ago. The trellis is from years ago when I thought I could grow things and tried to grow raspberries. Literally, the hose broke off the hose bib and into my hand. Yeah….it needed work. It is also an area I see from our kitchen and kitchen table, so I would love for it to look better. 

Costco sells all kinds of plants in the spring AND I had a Costco rebate check, so it was meant to be! My daughter and I selected the two gorgeous ferns. They seem like hearty plants that I can’t kill. So, they came home with us along with a new hose. I started by planting the ferns near the house to fill in some blank space.

Unfortunately, our early spring was followed by snow and ice about a week after I took these pics. The ferns look like they aren’t going to make it. They are all dark and funky looking. I wonder if I pruned them back if they would come back, but I have no idea. See, I told you, plants come here and don’t do well.

Near the ferns, I place a new double Sheppard’s hook. We love having birds in our yard, but as you could see our old bird feeder had served well and needed to be replaced.

It is very simple but fills in the area nicely. I am tempted to add more, but I know that I need to keep it simple and get this growing and thriving…then maybe add something else. 

I found this cute birdfeeder (affiliate link) at Lowe’s. 

The hummingbird feeder is from a few seasons ago and I believe also came from Lowe’s….and I notice (and hopefully you didn’t until I pointed it out) just how much you can see in the background that our house needs to be painted. Something to save up for. 

As I said, I picked one small area of the yard to work on. Our deck is horrible and needed to be worked on when we moved in 10 years ago. It is really bad now and I really need to do something about it. Anyway…. the bird feeders go really well with the whimsical water fountain I created and showed you the DIY for last week.

I don’t know if it is bad to say, but I am in love with this water fountain. It is a good way to add something to the yard that I can’t kill. 🙂

It is so cute and fun to look out the window and see.

I love the sound of the water when I walk outside.

The flowers can be changed out seasonally, though I think long term, it might be smart for me to find some kind of herb or perennial that I can’t kill. For now, these are still doing fine and I’ve been told they are quite hearty. Yay! Hope they mean it!

Flowers! I love to photograph them, even though I generally can’t keep them alive. 😉

You can see just a smidge of our dilapidated deck and the view of how the fountain fills in this part of the yard. I have a few hostas that are popping up and will fill in the area behind the water fountain as the year progresses. Those have done well and keep coming back year after year, so that is awesome. I may add a few more hostas if the ferns really are dead.

Overall, I kept this refresh super simple. I wanted it to be something that I could keep up with and hopefully not kill off. By not adding many plants but instead going for a water fountain and bird feeders, I should be able to keep this area of our yard looking nice.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, we use the leaves that fall in our yard(and there are WAY too many) and create our own leaf mulch. I need to add some more to this area, but it is a good way to be environmentally and budget friendly. Use what you’ve got. I had read a long time ago that it is also a good way to amend the soil and our soil stinks. I haven’t really seen that benefit, but that could be because I stink with gardening versus the fact that leaf mulch doesn’t really work.

For more fun yard ideas, follow my Yard board on Pinterest. It is filled with all kind of inspiration.