Are you excited to turn the calendar from 2023 to 2024? What’s on your Wishlist for your property—a Zen Garden? Installing a hot tub? Incorporating more eco-friendly landscaping and intelligent tech into your outdoor destination?

Whatever your outdoor living goals are, you can start by making a list and checking it twice to elevate your outdoor space for 2024.

7 Landscape and Hardscape Ideas for 2024

It’s the end of 2023. While you may be in the midst of holiday shopping, baking, and hosting, make a date with yourself to list your top DIY outdoor living ideas for the spring of 2024.

Here are seven trending landscape and hardscape ideas to add to your list:

1.  Create a peaceful space with a Zen garden 
The Chicago Botanic Garden describes a Zen Garden as the crown jewel for control, moderating, and simplicity. Rocks act as the bones of the earth and, in your case, a garden. Also, a Zen Garden is considered a dry garden using rocks, stones, sand, and water features.
 
A Zen Garden uses plants sparingly. Consider spring-blooming plants, such as camellias, azaleas, and ornamental cherry trees. Incorporate evergreen plants, including conifers, creeping thyme, and ferns. Japanese maples also add a splash of color.
 
2.  Install a hot tub to relax after a hard day
There’s no better way to relax after a long day at work than sitting in a hot tub. If you’re lucky enough to have a view worth dying for, you can soak and take in your surroundings.
 
However, installing a hot tub is a team effort and requires at least three people to move it to your backyard. You also need to have a sturdy foundation to hold the hot tub.
  
Unless you are an electrician or a contractor, you’ll need to hire them to build a foundation, stay within municipal regulations, and set up the electrical part of your hot tub.
 
3.  Create privacy with plants
If you long to add privacy to your backyard to keep prying eyes from watching your every move, you can create it with plants. Evergreens like arborvitae, Japanese cedar, and white spruce make excellent privacy screens.
 
You can also add ornamental grasses, vines, palms, and weeping trees for privacy.
 
Keep these tips in mind when you look for plants for a privacy screen:

• Plant the right plant at the right place so your plants have a long life
• Pick plants that will have dense growth rather than quick growth for longer-lasting plants
• Don’t pick invasive species for your privacy screen.

 
4.  Design your next outdoor destination
Create outdoor rooms that mimic the interior of your home. Many outdoor spaces include a patio with a fire pit, trendy outdoor furniture, and a cover, like a pergola.
Hire a landscape designer to create your next outdoor destination that includes walkways that bring outdoor rooms together and connect the front of the house with the backyard. Also, add LED lighting to enjoy your outdoor destination into the evening.

5.  Incorporate eco-friendly landscaping practices
When you add eco-friendly landscaping practices, you focus on these features:
 

• Xeriscaping: Incorporating slow-growing, drought-tolerant plants, native plants, and limiting turfgrass.
• Grasscycling: Instead of throwing away grass clippings, you can change your mower’s settings to mulching to chop up clippings that break down into the soil. You can also put grass clippings in a compost bin or your garden. Ditch the urban myth that grass clippings cause thatch—because they don’t.
• Create habitat: Develop a pollinator or rain garden to attract insects, birds, and other creatures to your yard. Plant natives that feed the butterflies and honeybees.
• Erosion control: You need erosion control if you have a slope or hill where water floods into the street or storm drains. Wattles, ripraps, retaining walls, and terraces are some ways to stop erosion from happening. Plant options are also available to stop erosion from happening on your property. Ground covers and turfgrass are two plant options to consider for a slope.
• Mulching: Add mulch to your flowerbeds, landscaped areas, and gardens to retain moisture, suppress weed growth, and regulate soil temperatures. Bark mulch and pine needles also provide nutrients as they break down.
• Composting: Use vegetable and fruit scraps, eggshells, coffee beans, dead plants, and other organic materials in your compost bin. You create less trash and develop a nutrient-dense soil to benefit your garden.
• Water conservation: As drought becomes more of a reality during the summer for many areas, water conservation is a must. Water sprinklers, drip irrigation, and tree bubblers conserve water and keep plants alive and healthy.

 
6.  Use smart tech in your landscaping and hardscaping spaces
Innovative technology for your landscaping and hardscaping areas includes a sprinkler system, and outdoor lighting controllers managed through an app on your mobile device. But smart tech can also include robotic mowers, outdoor smart plugs, portable speakers, outdoor TVs, smart pool water monitors, robotic pool cleaners, and smart grills.
 
7.  Install sprinklers and drip irrigation for optimal plant health
Lawn sprinklers and drip irrigation keep your lawn and landscaped areas looking their best. Drip irrigation and tree bubblers deliver water directly to the plant’s root area to ensure they get the right amount of water each time.
 
Lawn water sprinklers keep your turfgrass healthy and dense while keeping you compliant with your local city. Smart controllers allow you to adjust your irrigation system’s timer and the water used during each session.
 
If you have an older sprinkler system without smart technology, you can retrofit yours with the latest tech to save money and water.

Bringing Your Outdoor Space Ideas Together

The New Year is the perfect time to make a wish list for all the landscaping and hardscaping things you want to do starting in the spring.

You are creating an outdoor destination where you can entertain, installing a hot tub, and creating a Zen Garden to bring you peace in an eco-friendly backyard that will increase your happiness.

Elevate Your Outdoor Space with K-Rain’s Sprinkler System, Tree Bubblers, and Drip Irrigation

Investing in K-Rain's irrigation products for a healthy lawn and landscape while conserving water should be on your spring’s to-do list.

Discover our sprinkler system products at our online store, or buy K-Rain products at The Home Depot and Lowe's for an easy shopping experience.

Find an irrigation contractor on our website if you prefer someone to install your K-Rain irrigation system.

For assistance with K-Rain irrigation products, contact our customer service team at 800-735-7246 or email us at customerservice@krain.com.

Sources:
CalRecycle.ca.gov, Sustainable Landscaping.
ChicagoBotanic.org, The Zen Garden.
Forbes.com, How to Install a Hot Tub in 7 Steps.
Houzz.com, The 7 Best Plant Types for Creating Privacy and How to Use Them.
Lowes.com, How to Control Erosion in Your Yard.
PCMag.com, The Best Outdoor Smart Home Devices for 2023.