We need a psychedellic back yard!

Help! My wife and I are trying to think of ways we can give our back yard a psychedellic spin and we need some help.

(We already transformed the front yard into a massive Zen garden after ditching the front lawn, replacing it with 2 tons of gravel and installing sculptures of a Yin Yang and a Buddha, which we illuminate at night).

The back yard is boring. Just a wooden fenced in space with a small tool shed.

We've already decided to paint the 3 walls of the fence in bright multi-colored stripes along the planks (and to do the same with the shed). The side facing inward only would be painted so the neighbors would have no reason to worry their pointy little heads, get torches and pitchforks and storm the castle ... er house.

Maybe some of those weather-resistant brightly colored Hand shaped plastic chairs might be nice (we have one inside) but other than that, we've come up empty with ideas....

Any suggestions on what can be done without a huge amount of cash??

Thanks in advance.

 

Hammocks are always nice anywhere.

Peace and love

 

Most yards just need some crazy plants. Something big and colorful. Bamboo is nice and it grows really fast. Castor bean plants are very cool, but poisonous, so be careful with those. I also like tall sunflowers.

 

rhododendron and eucalyptus forrests as well as timber bamboo. lots of all different kinds and colors of flowers, perenials especialy. not just big plants but lots and lots of super sub-miniature ones, so called 'alpines' with zillions and zillions of little flowers.

kitchen herbs too. and then you need to make your paths mazelike and avoid streight lines wherever possible.

=^^=
.../\...

 

you should post some pictures id love to see how it turns out

 

Wierd statuary would add some ambience. And you could always add some unique topiary.

 

you guys should also look into building a fire pit and surround it with cool benches for roasting marshmallows =) use really groovy looking tiles to make a outdoor floor around the fire pit so none of your pretty plants catch on fire!!

 

Dude I thought about doing the same thing. I was gonna make a statue of the Alice in Wonderland scene with the Caterpillar on the Mushroom, out of paper machie or something. It would be awesome. Check into it.

 

Firepits are nice. We have one in our backyard. It's not elaborate, but it is functional. We made it with all the pieces of broken bricks and concrete blocks that were strewn around. Our house and yard were pretty trashed when we bought our property. That's what we get for being cheap.

 

gotta a patio, do it yerself mosaic.....

 

what about a running pond with a waterfall and fishies? with some colored lights in it that change colors? or a S shaped walkway made of stone? some mosiac stuff that would be nice like mentioned earlier, how about a bottle tree; somethin like this

http://www.kudzufiles.com/pics/bottletree.jpg

or this

http://www.dikenga.com/films/firecracker/mirror_image/images/BottleTree.jpg

http://www.dikenga.com/films/firecracker/mirror_image/images/Conclusion-BottleTree.jpg

maybe do some sort of sculptures or paint some old chairs up and set them up next to a fire that would be great too post pics when ur done or figured it out. They also help to let us see what ur working with too!!!!

 

you can get small fountains for pretty good prices at target and such (avoid walmart, which is possibly the root of all evil). i got a pretty copper fountain about 2 feet tall that was on clearance just because it had a couple little scratches and dings. running water is very calming :daisy:

 

paint the fence rasta colors!

 

I suggest some stone walls. They are always nice and calming. Natural stone Maybe a nice little vegie garden or some kind. Oh I've always wanted a japanese water garden. We're getting a weeping willow in the front soon, saw a 20 foot one recently, was beautiful. I'd like to hang out under it

 

You can do a lot of "found art" installations around your yard.

Like suggested above, bottle trees, windchimes, weird statues..etc. would really work out. I have those and they do help the yard. Found art is well... to put it bluntly, junk arranged in a way to give it an artistic appeal. For instance: old hubcaps, metal garbage can lids, or old or broken digital satelitte dishes are great bird baths or fountains. You can also use used wood to make bird houses and use old licenese plates for the roof. I suggest looking up "yard art" an "art environment" sites to get ideas. The "Orange Show" is a good one to start off with.

My yard is pull of bottle trees, sculptures made from tractor parts, found object, bowling balls, hubcaps, and the list keeps on growing. I like to hide small sculptures in the foliage so that it gets people to really look. Right now I am working on a sculpture out on the ranch that uses an old windmill tower.

Post some pics when you can, here's mine!

 

Three more, the system wouldn't allow me to post all of them so I've split them up.

 

A few more:




Me with my "Bottle Shrub". It's come in fuller this year.

 

make windchimes out of junk, like old spoons keys and broken glass. i've seen them done before and they look amazing!

 

how about furniture made out of plants or shurbs? Found this not too long ago. I'm going to try it eventually.

http://readymademag.com/feature_6_sodcouch.php

 

unkle john, I like your bowling ball ring. It made me giggle. If I had a big tree, I think I would make one for my yard.