If you're thinking about undertaking a home improvement project, consider transforming ideas for landscaping around a deck into reality, including adding functional privacy screens and layering garden beds. Installing energy-efficient, ambiance-boosting lighting is another excellent addition to a front or backyard deck design.
By investing in these deck landscaping ideas, you can maximize your outdoor area and turn it into an extension of your living space.
As an added benefit, open-air living spaces (such as landscaped decks) can boost the appeal and value of properties, as reported by the Royal Examiner. It also notes that the focus of nearly one in five (19%) home improvement projects in recent years was outdoor living and leisure.
What Can You Surround a Deck With?
It depends on what you want from the border or enclosure; is it for safety, privacy, aesthetics, or a combination of all? Fortunately, you have many options, including:
- Lattice as deck skirting (under-deck cover), with material options including wood, vinyl, and composite
- Solid panels as deck skirting, including horizontal or vertical wood planks, brick, or stone veneer
- Railings and balusters for safety and style, with options being cable, iron, glass, and aluminum
- Fencing for functional privacy, such as bamboo for a tropical feel
- Natural landscaping, including softscaping and hardscaping, to add color and privacy
How Do You Make a Deck Look Nicer?
Decks can add significant value to residential properties, offering up to an 80% return on investment (ROI), according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). If you make it look much nicer and "usable," though, you could turn it into one of the best-selling points of your property, which could boost its value and price should you decide to put it up for sale.
Some tips to make your deck look nicer and enhance its usability include:
- Ensuring it remains clean and debris-free (sweeping it up, washing it with a deck-specific cleaning solution or a mixture of warm water and gentle detergent, and rinsing it thoroughly)
- Staining or repainting the deck as needed
- Installing adequate lighting for ambiance, visibility, and safety
- Adding greenery like outdoor deck plants to create a more natural vibe and seamless transition between the indoors and outdoors
What Ideas for Landscaping Around a Deck Can Create Unique Outdoor Spaces?
Landscaping improves the aesthetics of an area of land while also enhancing its functionality and value.
It's an art and science that considers factors ranging from botany to ecology, hydrology, soil science, horticulture, and topography. It combines hardscaping (non-living or inorganic structural elements, like a deck) with softscaping (plants, flowers, and shrubs).
Incorporating landscaping around a deck, however, takes more than just adding a few potted plants here and there. Integrate the following ideas and concepts into your deck garden plans to turn your outdoor space into a unique oasis.
Adding Functional Privacy Screens
Functional privacy screens, such as vertical greenery systems, block the view of prying eyes into your deck. They use trellises covered in clematis or other climbing vines. You can also opt for arborvitae or bamboo, which are fast-growing barriers.
Another option is to enjoy the dual-purpose benefits (softscaping + hardscaping) of a hanging rail planter, also called "over the railing planter." You place it on top of or on the front side of a deck rail. The plants growing out of it can act as a partial screen, providing aesthetic, decorative deck edges that add more privacy to your deck.
Layering Garden Beds
Layered garden beds as landscaping around a deck can create a welcoming, natural vibe that softens the deck's architectural lines and camouflages its exposed, harsh-looking foundations. They also work as four-season landscaping, providing year-round interest with seasonal variations and staggering plants for a dynamic visual appeal.
Layering garden beds involves choosing plants with various bloom times, ensuring the garden surrounding your deck is always in bloom and never dormant:
- Bulbs for spring
- Perennials for summer
- Chrysanthemums and other fall-blooming plants
- Evergreens for winter
You must also stagger your garden beds' layout. The front layer, the area farthest from the deck, should consist of low-growing flowers or groundcovers.
Next is the middle layer, which should feature small shrubs, perennials, or other focal-point plants for color. The back layer, the bed closest to the deck, should have the tallest plants, shrubs, ornamental grasses, or climbing vines to soften and cover the deck's foundation and structure.
Installing the Right Lighting Elements
Using lighting as an element for landscaping around a deck can turn this outdoor space into an all-day functional "room." You have several options, including LED-based:
- Pathway lighting
- String lights
- Corner lights
- Wall-mounted lights
- Overhead recessed lights
LED is the best choice because it's among the most energy-efficient and sustainable of all your lighting options. Some even use renewable energy, such as solar-powered outdoor lights.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Furniture Should You Choose for Your Landscaped Deck?
Select good-quality, climate-appropriate furnishings.
Aluminum or teak outdoor furniture, for instance, is ideal for coastal/humid areas, while those made from heavy eucalyptus are better for cold or windy regions. Resin wicker or powder-coated steel, on the other hand, are great choices for hot/dry climates.
Do You Need to Hire Landscaping Professionals?
Hiring landscaping professionals is usually not a legal requirement, meaning you're under no obligation to enlist their services, provided your project is straightforward (it doesn't require significant alteration of the land or existing structures built on it). An example is if you only need to mow, trim, or put in new small plants.
Your state, however, may require you to hire a licensed, insured contractor if your project is more complex and involves significant hardscaping or the installation of an irrigation system. Building a new deck, a significant structural modification, may also require hiring a professional contractor.
Consider These Savvy Ideas for Landscaping Around a Deck
With the right strategies for landscaping around a deck, you can turn your outdoor space into a unique, all-day, even year-round oasis. Add aesthetic yet functional privacy screens, layer garden beds, and use LED lighting, and you can make the most out of your deck and even boost your property's charm and value.
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