Backyard Blog

Welcome to our Backyard Blog where we share our love of outdoor living, our newest Backyard Getaway projects, community events, “Re-purposed Backyard” art for the garden how-to instructions and product review and how-to videos. To make your visit a little easier we have divided our posts into three categories below or you can simply scroll down to read all our posts.

Backyard Ponderings:

backyard pondering[pon-der] verb to consider thoughtfully; meditate

Backyard Ponder-ing is all about sharing our love of outdoor living with you. Read about our newest Backyard Getaway projects, community events, caring for gardens, ponds and Koi, sustainability and how to enhance your life through outdoor living. Read our latest Backyard Pondering blog post!

Re-Purposed Backyard:

re-purposed backyardThe Re-purposed backyard blog is about making something new out of something old or discarded, creating art out of re-purposed, recycled or re-used items, something fun for your garden or useful for your outdoor living space. What you can create is only limited by what you can imagine. Our re-purposed backyard blog is where we share how-to instructions on what we are creating for our re-purposed backyard. Be sure to visit our Re-purposed Backyard Gallery to view just a few of the many items we have created and read our latest Re-Purposed Backyard blog posts. 

 Backyard Buzz

backyard buzzHave you seen the latest buzz? Visit our Backyard Buzz page or check out the Backyard Buzz on the Backyard Getaway YouTube channel. In each episode Dave tests and reviews the latest and tried & true garden, pet and pond products and shares how -to project instructions. Before you buy or build be sure to get the Buzz!
We hope you enjoy our blog and visit often to read our latest articles. If there is something you would like to see in an article  contact us and let me know what you would like to read about. If you like what you read please share with your friends and like us on facebook. Backyard Getaway is now on Instagram.

Pond Lighting for Every Budget

pond lighting

Pond lighting has come a long way in the past few years. We’ve gone from having only submersible halogen lights to having the choice of halogen, LED, solar & fiber optic. There are low voltage lights & solar lights, submersed lights, external lights, floating lights, spotlights, pinpoint lights & even rope lights. All make great additions to your pond viewing

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Landscape and PondFree Renovation Project

pondfree renovation

It seems that more and more we are being called to help repair or renovate an existing water feature. As much as we enjoy starting fresh with a blank canvas, we also love these projects, they are  more challenging than starting from scratch. When our customers purchased their home the waterfall was not working properly. They called us to see

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Algae Control Part II

algae

In part one of algae control we discussed natural ways to control algae in your pond. To re-cap, make sure your pond filter system is adequate, add beneficial bacteria regularly, add plants especially oxygenating ones, do not over stock or over feed your Koi. We also discussed the three most common algae; green water algae, filamentous algae and string algae.

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Summer Clearance Fall Specials

fall special

Summer has come to an end and fall weather is just around the corner. We want to thank our loyal customers with an End of Summer Clearance / Welcome to Fall Special! First check out our Summer Clearance Catalog! We are clearing out our stock to make room for new items. Don’t miss out on huge savings of 25-90% off

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Natural Algae Control

algae

Every pond owner has faced the dreaded algae bloom at one time or another while caring for his or her pond. There are several types of algae, the most common being Planktonic (green water) algae, filamentous algae and string or hair algae. Keep in mind that not all algae are bad, and some algae in your pond actually is beneficial, not only for the health of your pond,

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Nature Lover’s Bucket List

Have you ever created a bucket list? A list of things you want to accomplish, places to see, people to meet, foods to taste, before you…well you get the idea. Being a gardening fan, I have a nature lover’s bucket list of gardens and parks that I hope to one-day visit. Places that give natural inspiration to create something beautiful.

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Gardening with Kids

It seems kids today are spending more time inside on computers and playing video games, instead of playing outside in nature. It is increasingly difficult to get them outside especially during the school year. What if you had a project that would get them outside, allow you to spend time together as a family and teach them about wildlife and

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Koi Varieties part III

koi pond

Choosing only three Koi varieties for the last in our series on Koi proved to be a bit difficult. After all, there are hundreds to choose from. Here are three classes that include many sub varieties. Koromo Koromo, which means “robed” in Japanese, is a group of fish that originated in the early 1950s from a cross breeding of male

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Koi Varieties part II

Utsuri

In the last blog post we discussed the most popular and readily available “big three” Koi varieties the Kohaku, Sanke and Showa. This time I would like to introduce you to three of my favorite varieties, The Shiro Utsuri, Shusui and Doitsu. Each of these Koi varieties has characteristics that are quite different from each other which make them stand

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