Blending decks into yards and landscapes: Featured on NOVA Pros!

http://novapros.com/articles/featured/blending-decks-into-yards-and-landscapes/

The past twenty-five years has witnessed a phenomenal boom in the construction of big outdoor decks. Most of them are downright ugly. Many are unimaginative rectangles built with now-graying green lumber in a dull array of parallel lines. In an era of eight-foot privacy fences, plenty of homeowners don’t care how ordinary their backyard refuges might appear to the neighbors. Some of us, however, want to achieve a lovely flow from treated wood to lot-line woods, and wouldn’t dream of installing head-high solid blockades to hide our handiwork.

You can have your sprawling wooden deck, your table and chairs, the big umbrella, a giant $2,000 barbecue station, and even one of those hideous plastic weatherproof storage bins – you can have all this, and a beautiful backyard, too. Let the Jones’s next door stare all they want; theirs will be a look of admiration tinged with envy.

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See this story as it originally appeared on Helium.com

copyright 2008 - Jim Bessey

Wooden planter set makes a fine deck accessory

Most decks are boring until you add some jazzy details. A pair of wooden planters with a connecting corner bench did the trick at my house.

My oldest son and I found ourselves with a free afternoon last year. We had a small stockpile of materials left over from a project my partner had done for one of his customers. I did some measuring and calculating, and we had enough for a small project.

We trekked off to our local Lowe's to buy two square plastic plant containers and a box of color-matched screws. When we returned, we assembled a few basic tools, drew up some very basic plans on graph paper, and went straight to work.

Now our plain-Jane deck has a nifty and practical corner. The hostas add a very nice touch of green, too. My wife likes the bench -- it's her favorite spot to set out her potted plants for sunning.

Want to build your own? Read more comprehensive instructions in my Helium article, "How to build a wooden planter." You can use the picture as a general guideline, too, of course.

copyright 2009 - all rights reserved    Read Jim's profile at Helium.com
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Want to learn more? Head for Theresa and Raven's Container Gardening Zone to see a LOT more about turning your patio or deck into a paradise. 

If you have a project like this you'd like to share, please drop me a line.

Read about building planters on Helium.com

Balcony deck: We add a pergola!

Had a day "off" with some help from my brother-in-law, so we zoomed over to Home Depot, bought some materials, and built a pergola for my backyard balcony deck. "This changes everything!"