Concrete can be just about anything, but it is most commonly associated with sidewalks and driveways. When you think of concrete, what images come to mind? Are Lines drawn in the sand? A cold slab of stone on a slab foundation?
These are all accurate descriptions for concrete. But did you know that it can also bring life to your backyard and enhance your outdoor living space like never before? We will explore four ways that concrete can bring life to any backyard.
Using Concrete to Create a Patio
What does concrete look like on a patio? It is usually dark gray or brown, but you can also find it in light colors such as beige. Colors will depend largely on the type of aggregate used to create the mix. Concrete for patios can often include sand, ground-up rock, and stone chips for decoration purposes.
This material is ideal because it becomes almost impervious to temperature changes and sunlight exposure (read: lasts forever). So you’ll never have to worry about cracking your patio again! In addition, the surface of this kind of concrete provides great traction, which means that even if there’s some rain coming down outside, all you need are some rubber boots and an umbrella-you’re set! This helps make any outdoor living space feel more like home.
Recreational Spaces with Concrete
Concrete is also great for creating good surfaces for playing on-think of all the cool games you can play with this material! For example, you could make an outdoor chessboard, put some tic tac toe grids out or line up hopscotch squares. Kids will be excited to spend hours outside when they have fun stuff to do, and they won’t even know what time it is!
In addition, concrete creates a space where people can congregate outdoors without feeling squished together in small areas since it’s so durable and strong. It allows everyone to move around freely while still having plenty of room underfoot, thanks to its high compressive strength, which means there isn’t any risk of cracking through from the heavy foot traffic.
Concrete is Excellent for Accenting Plants
Another benefit of concrete is that it’s a great surface for plants too! You can put down some stepping stones and plant succulents around them or create little gardens in the cracks with flowering perennials like roses, pansies, petunias, geraniums, etc., to give your backyard that extra pop!
Lastly, you could add many decorative aspects if you want to stencil patterns onto the surfaces or adding mosaics along with other unique designs. It will make your outdoor space feel much more personal and homey rather than just being an open area where people go out back to do their laundry or hang out at night after work when they’re bored.
There are so many cool designs that you could use to customize your concrete-you should check out this article about the different types of decorative options and what they offer.
Create Walkways in Your Garden
A concrete patio can be the ideal place to walk around in your garden. This could even have a raised bed for herbs and vegetables, or something like an outdoor seating area with benches, plants, flowers-anything you want!
If you’re adventurous, consider adding a water feature out back as well. It’ll make it feel more serene and less exposed to the elements, which is great if you live somewhere where things get hot quickly or rainy during certain parts of the year. A small pond with fish might work too!
The sky’s the limit when it comes to what kind of design ideas are available, so don’t stop at just one project before considering many other ways that this material can help bring life into your backyard space.