Landscaping and Decorating Your Outdoor Space with 7 Budget-Friendly Ideas

If you have a backyard swimming pool and want to liven up the surrounding spaces but are concerned about how much it might cost you, keep reading.  If you have even an ounce of creativity and feel a bit resourceful, you can give your backyard pool area a new look and create the oasis of your dreams. Landscaping and decorating your outdoor space doesn’t have to be as expensive as you might think it is.

Before you dive into these DIY ideas to liven up your backyard pool and surrounding spaces, there’s a bit of simple but necessary housekeeping to do:

Want to further enhance the beauty of your backyard pool? Think: waterfall, fountain, or cascade. Not only are they calming, but they also provide an aesthetically pleasing backdrop to the overall space.

Check out these stunning water feature ideas for your backyard pool.

If you hate walking over the grass to get your pool and are beginning to see wear and tear in the lawn as a result, consider putting in a beautiful stone walkway.  All you need is enough stones/slabs to get to the pool from the back door or patio. Be creative, too.  Choose different colored stones and create a mosaic look. Conversely, you can make the color scheme of your pool deck for a simple transition.

Here are some exciting stone path ideas to inspire you.

If your green thumb just never seems to work and you are not confident working with plants, consider making a rock garden. This helps fill space around the pool. Depending on the size of the space you want to fill, you just need a few bags of river rocks and then fill up a bed of dirt with them. This is a great way to incorporate a strong impact to your backyard landscape. You may even want to make a rock border around the pool deck for a grander presentation.

You can add texture and layers to your backyard pool with various appointments of backyard plants. Not only do they offer a splash of color, but they also give off a calming and relaxed vibe to the space. Choose plants that do well in the sun, are resilient, require minimal maintenance, and don’t shed a lot of debris.

Some great examples of pool plants to consider include:

If you want to artistically round out the rock garden, install ornamental grass around the border of your pool deck. Several of them make a great privacy wall, while just a few can act as eye-catching accent pieces.

You can also incorporate artificial turf or real grass in truly eye-catching style:

If backyard privacy is important to you, consider a fence made out of foliage. Not only will they keep prying eyes from peeking in, but they also look great.

A few plants, trees, and shrubs that make great privacy fences:

If you already have a garden near your pool, you can add some beauty and an elegant ambiance with rope lights situated along its borders. Not only will your garden look great during the day, but it can also provide a whole new vibe at night.

And those LED string lights aren’t just for the Christmas tree anymore. They look equally great outside and provide a simple yet classy touch when hung around your pool area. Choose white LED Christmas lights instead of larger bulbs. Why? Well, first of all, they are lighter. Plus, they are easy to set up. Finally, they are energy efficient. You can elegantly illuminate your backyard pool setting at night without escalating your energy bill. (Please note: set up these lights away from the water. You don’t want to risk them coming into contact with the pool and creating electric shock.)