Patios, Playscapes, Fire Pits: Creating Enjoyable Places In Your Yard
A well-designed yard is a portal to a better life: a life filled with deep connections to nature, meaningful moments shared between loved ones, fresh air, and pleasurable time spent in sanctuary spaces that allow you to relax and recharge.
When you create enjoyable places in your yard, you invite yourself, your family, and your friends into this way of living.
A native garden that attracts pollinators or an edible garden that feeds your family is a wonderful starting point. When you combine these plantings with spaces that facilitate human activity, you create a beautiful, functional, and harmonious landscape.
Here are a few examples to inspire your quest for an enjoyable yard.
Inviting patios turn a boring backyard into an extension of the family’s living space.
Before: A blank lawn invites new possibilities
When Our Land Organics arrived on the scene, these Loveland homeowners knew their yard had potential but weren’t sure where to start.
Our team got to work installing a crushed stone patio for family hangouts around a fire pit. We designed the landscape to improve privacy and shade to ensure comfortable enjoyment of this space.
After: A crushed stone patio and cheerful seating invites family and friends into the backyard.
We also added a flagstone patio closer to the back porch to inspire time spent in nature—whether reading in a comfy chair, sunbathing, or sipping an evening cocktail. Crushed stone pathways provide easy access in and around this area.
After: A flagstone patio and comfy chairs near the house offer easy access to outdoor lounge time.
In true Our Land fashion, we incorporated naive plants—including echinacea, agastache, rudbeckia maxima, serviceberry, and several others—for beauty, ecosystem support, and reduced maintenance. A raised cedar vegetable bed near the house gives easy access to home-grown produce.
2. A backyard fire pit transforms a steep slope into a functional hangout space.
Top: Before
Bottom: A nearly completed landscape installation
When this Ft. Thomas family contacted Our Land Organics, they were sick of struggling to mow steep slopes and feeling like their backyard wasn’t particularly usable.
We put together a comprehensive design that turned the steepest areas into native garden beds with slope-stabilizing native plants.
Next, we installed a durable stone wall and a crushed stone patio with a natural stone fire pit, and we created a gentle path to safely link the house and this new outdoor space.
An area that was once a nuisance has transformed into an accessible and enjoyable place to hang out with friends and family.
After: The hillside is now usable, beautiful, and ecologically beneficial.
3. A nature playscape replaces invasive plants with a fun space for play and learning.
Before
Before Our Land Organics was called in, invasive plants had taken over this backyard in Anderson Township. Bush honeysuckle blocked sightlines and cramped the understory, while English ivy spread its tendrils across the landscape.
At the time, the family had a three-year-old and a newborn on the way. They wanted a space where the kids could play within eyesight while Mom and Dad relaxed. Here’s how we transformed this yard:
We removed the invasive plants to clear sightlines and make room for native plants.
We strategically chose native plantings that engage kids’ senses, including soft ostrich ferns, pungent spicebush, and edible highbush blueberries.
We installed a dry creek that funnels rain run-off from the roof. This improves drainage across the backyard and gives the kids a chance to learn about water and rain barrels.
After: A dry creek bed to play in, a slide to fly down, stumps to climb, plenty of room to run around, and native plants to engage all the senses. What more could a kid ask for?