• Do something unusual with your backyard.morocco majorelle garden image by Jennifer LaFleur from Fotolia.com
  
  Unlike the front yard, the backyard is a semi-private space. Don't just grow it as a sea of green like the front. Instead, take a few risks and come up with a truly creative space that expresses who you are. Create a stylized garden to give your yard a taste of the exotic, use hardscape elements to divide up the space in interesting ways or use water-saving design to make your yard a miniature ecological utopia.
  
  

Moroccan Garden

• Make the most of the outdoors during the warm months with a backyard Moroccan garden. Build a patio with a fountain in the middle surrounded by brightly colored ceramic tiles in a geometric design. Plant citrus trees around the garden, either in the ground or, if winters are too cold in your climate, in pots which you can move indoors. Add ferns in pots or raised planters along with other exotic plants such as crocuses, arum lilies and decorative grasses. Put out a cafe-style tiled table and wire chairs and Moroccan lanterns, ornamental bird cages and other decorative objects.
  
  

Divide up the Space

• Even in a well-maintained backyard lawn, an unbroken expanse of green can be a bit dull. Break up the space into rectangular sections to give your backyard some variety. Landscape a concrete walkway straight down the middle of the yard or create a walk with one 90-degree turn to carve out a square of your yard, suggesting a grid. Add rectangular or L-shaped patches of bark mulch, gravel or both. Plant rectangular raised flower or vegetable beds to give the yard a three-dimensional feel. Outline the yard with a decorative fence, such as a low picket fence.
  
  

Xeriscape

• Reduce water consumption and decrease the amount of time you'll spend caring for your plants with xeriscaping. A xeriscape backyard garden is designed to minimize the amount of irrigation the plants need. Select drought-tolerant plants for the majority of your yard and group higher-water usage plants together. Add compost, manure or other organic fertilizer to your yard to promote water retention and cover the soil with mulch to help prevent evaporation. Add landscape boulders or other decorative hardscape to add interest to the garden without increasing water usage. Install a drip irrigation system to automatically water your plants. Not only will drip irrigation save you work but it will also save water.