How to upgrade backyard?

[darshnarao]

 hi my name is darshna,

I am beginner, need help for landscaping  do i need to remove lawn? What materials will need and what is the process steps

Appreciate your input

Cheers

[Jason]

Hi @darshnarao,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. We trust you'll get loads of help and inspiration for all your projects around the home and garden from our amazing members.

What are your plans for your backyard? It seems like you have a great space to work with that already has some fantastic features, like the trees, garden beds and your lawn. It will be great to hear what you currently think it is missing so we can help realise your vision.

Experienced Bunnings Workshop member Adam Woodhams can help with your planning process with the article How to plan a garden makeover and then provides expert advice in implementing your plan in the guide How to give your garden a makeover. It would be a great place to start. 

You should also get inspiration from our Top 10 most popular garden makeovers.

Please let us know more information about what you would like to achieve - we'd love to help.

Thanks,

Jason

[darshnarao]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for quick reply, I would like to work on grass area as in landscape and re do real grass because there are few spots never grow grass and few spots are dead grass. Hope that help

Thanks

Darshna

[MitchellMc]

Hi @darshnarao,

It looks like your lawn is struggling a bit, but the good news is you likely won’t need to remove it to get it looking healthy again. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest starting with a Buffalo booster fertiliser to give the grass a nutrient boost. This will help encourage new growth, especially in those patchy areas.

Next, aerate the lawn to improve soil drainage and allow water, nutrients, and oxygen to reach the roots more effectively. You can do this with a garden fork by gently poking holes across the lawn, or use a lawn aerator if you prefer.

After aerating, apply a thin layer of topsoil evenly across the entire lawn. This helps level out any uneven spots and encourages new shoots to grow through. Make sure not to cover the grass too thickly—just enough to allow the tips to poke through.

With regular watering and care, your lawn should start to fill in nicely. Keep up with consistent mowing, but avoid cutting it too short while it’s recovering. 

Here's a helpful guide: How to take care of your lawn.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[Dave-1]

Afternoon @darshnarao 

I like your fruit trees and your grass dosnt look too bad (I have far worse spots in parts of my lawn) I am going through the proces sof redesigning my backyard as we speak! 

- Remove the raised gardens? If they are falling apart and you are spending more time turning the soil, weedingthen you want. Why not remove them and plant the trees you have in the pots? Bananas?

- Remove the pavers down to just one row around the bas eof your garden beds. More grass, less heat.

- Reduce the garden beds down to one or two? 

Going through the ideas you have, I would suggest a rough sketch of what you have now. Just a top down look at the yard where you draw all the fixed things. Then a second sketch of things you want to keep or even add to. I find it really helps solidify the ideas.

Here are a couple of sketchs of my back yard, just as an example. They are the first ones at the pre-start to the work.

Existing layout topdown look.

Proposed layout down the track topdown look

The state it was in, yeah I would put effort into the beds and then forget about them

Removing the beds and releveling the ground.

So with your sketch, you could draw in the trees, as circles. (I would hesitate to remove them as they are an investment of years) You could add water taps, tank taps if you have them.  Where your bins are kept, maybe shift the garden beds to a corner end of the yard? Also take those pavers and put in a curved path or maybe a twisting path to the garden beds in the corner? Make a food forest garden area to the left maybe? Plant teh bannanas there plus other trees/flowers that help polinate..

I often troll through the projects in here for back gardens as there is a lot to inspire.

Dave

[mich1972]

Good morning @darshnarao @I just saw your interest in reviving your backyard. Thank you for sharing in the Workshop Community 😃 I love the advice that has been shared here. I zoomed in on your photo and immediately I was excited to see the raised beds in the background !!!!!!

Now, this is just my opinion and what I would love to do with it if it was my own backyard.

If you’re a beginner when it comes to Gardening or if you’re unsure what to do, I personally would advise you to keep it simple and work with one section at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed with it. 

So , your lawn looks fine, just keep up with watering it, regular mowing to choke out any weeds, feeding the lawn and if you are in a dry area, adding wetting agent. That’s just regular maintenance for a good healthy lawn. 

What I’m excited about are those raised garden beds. They look like they just have old sand in them right now ? Hard to tell from the photo. 
I would remove as much of that sand as possible and then add Compost , Manure, Soil Improvement. Then I would start growing Edibles , Vegetables, Herbs ect. 

Have a think about what you would like to do and what you’re comfortable doing. Remember, keep it simple. Good luck 😃