Outdoors Projects & Advice

A low picket fence adds curb appeal and a cozy sense of enclosure to a front yard or entry area without blocking views to or from the house. Building a custom picket fence from scratch is a great do-it-yourself project. The small scale and simple structure of the basic fence design make it easy to add your own creative details and personal touches. In this project, you’ll see how to cut custom pickets and build a fence using standard lumber.

A firepit is a backyard focal point and gathering spot. The one featured here is constructed around a metal liner, which will keep the fire pit walls from overheating and cracking if cooled suddenly by rain or a bucket of water. The liner here is a section of 36-inch-diameter corrugated culvert pipe. Check local codes for stipulations on pit area size. Many codes require a 20-foot-diameter pit area.

Ladder golf doesn’t have much to do with golf, but it’s plenty of fun and it’s exploding in popularity. Stop by any tailgate party outside the football stadium and there’s a good chance you’ll see several fans engaged in a heated game. Also called ladder toss, ladder ball, and many other names,ladder golf is a relatively new backyard game that involves tossing short bolas made from golf balls at a ladder-like stand. If the bola wraps around one of the ladder rungs and stays, you earn points.

A low retaining wall built with timbers follows many of the same construction steps as an interlocking block wall.

Sandset flagstone patios blend nicely with natural landscapes. Although flagstone evokes a natural feel, the patio can appear rustic or formal. This patio has clean, well-tamped joints and straight, groomed edges along the perimeter that lends to a formal feel. Plantings in the joints or a rough, natural perimeter would give the same patio a more relaxed, rustic feel.