13 Garden Projects You Can Do In A Weekend
Transform your backyard with these easy weekend garden projects! These creative ideas will enhance your outdoor spaces in no time!
Spring is here! If you’re looking to give your outdoor spaces a quick refresh, you’re in the right place! Sometimes the best projects are the ones that don’t take forever – as you will see with these easy gardening projects!
Whether you’re looking for creative landscaping ideas, looking for plants that attract butterflies, or adding outdoor lighting these weekend-friendly projects will have your backyard looking its best in no time.
1. Lawn Care For Beginners
In the spring before we work on any garden beds or planters, we start with the lawn. A lush foundation is the key to a pretty backyard. The good news is creating a lush lawn is easier than you might think and doesn’t require lots of time.
This is not only an easy weekend project – you can prep your lawn and plant seeds in an afternoon! Even if you have a larger backyard or you’re a new to lawn care.
2. Edging Around TreeS
The second thing we do in the spring is clean up the garden beds and give them fresh edging. This is also part of the foundation for all other garden elements.
Edging your yard doesn’t need to be overly complicated. I usually will do ours with nothing more than an edger shovel. During the years, I will sometimes edge around the patio or walkways with the weed wacker when cutting the lawn.
3. Sprout Seeds Overnight
I have a basket full of seeds I save from year to year. Some are new flower seeds I want to experiment with and others are seeds I’ve harvested from last year.
In the Spring, if I want to sprout the seeds quickly, I use this simple trick. I often use it with Morning Glory flowers. I can have them sprouted and planted within 48 hours.
4. Plants Flowers That Attract Butterflies
Gardening is a continuous learning journey, and it’s one I truly enjoy. Over time, I’ve discovered which flowers and plants are best for attracting butterflies and hummingbirds.
You can also find a simple hummingbird food recipe that I use every year and it never fails to attract them. Early in the season, before I fill the feeders I will see the hummingbirds coming back to the spots I had them last year.
5. Creative DIY Planter Weekend Garden Projects
The garden is a great place to get creative and experiment with new ideas. You can add unexpected pops of color you wouldn’t normally use inside, use something unexpected, or upcycle old things in new ways.
One way I did that is by transforming an old wheelbarrow into a planter. Not only was this an easy project, it was also inexpensive. It was a fun way to incorporate something creative into the garden bed. It’s still one of my favorite garden projects.
6. Shade Garden Plants
If your backyard or outdoor area doesn’t get lots of sun, you can still have vibrant garden beds using shade garden plants. I love my shade gardens the best, they’re a relief from the heat of the summer season!
7. Container Gardening
Who doesn’t love a good container garden? They’re useful for small spaces or problem areas and let you get creative with the containers themselves. Plus they give you the option of moving them around to different locations.
They’re also great for experimenting with pairing different plants together and creating different container garden recipes. Whether you are looking for full-sun container gardens or pots that thrive in full shade, the options are endless!
I also like to create container herb gardens. Last year I used a strawberry planter and filled it with fresh herbs to create an all-in-one herb garden. In each opening, I planted a different type of herb. That idea worked really well!
You could also make an herb garden in a window box or a planter that hangs on deck railings. Herbs are easy to grow anywhere!
Container gardens make a great project if you want to get your kids involved in gardening. Let them experiment with different arrangements and give them the task of keeping the plants watered.
You can even grow fresh vegetables in pots if you don’t have a lot of room! What’s better than growing your own food?
8. Vertical Gardens for small outdoor spaces
Creating vertical gardens is a beautiful addition to any outdoor space and they’re an easy way to add another layer of interest. It’s especially useful in small outdoor spaces!
When looking for climbing vines for your garden trellis be careful to choose one that isn’t invasive. I made that mistake with a hummingbird vine in my backyard. The best non-invasive climbing vine I’ve found is the climbing hydrangea. It grows slowly and doesn’t pop up anywhere else.
Another favorite of mine is the climbing Black Eyed Susan vine. It grows fast but isn’t invasive and typically doesn’t come back the following year. They can be a bit harder to find, I actually found the one shown at a flea market. In the fall, I harvested seeds from it and I’m hoping to grow a new one this year from those.
9. Water Features
If you want to take your outdoor spaces to the next level, add a water feature. These are super simple to make! You can add an electric fountain pump to any body of water to make a fountain. If you don’t want to use electricity, you could try a solar fountain pump. It doesn’t get easier than that!
A few years ago I used an electric fountain pump to make a DIY fountain out of old terracotta planters.
10. OUtdoor String Lights
Once your gardens are going for the year, another way to take it up a notch is to add outdoor lighting. You can add solar lights to your garden beds or hang string lights. Hanging string lights makes a huge impact and it can be done even if you don’t have any trees to hang them from.
We hung string lights over our patio without any trees and it’s still one of the best things we did in our yard for ambiance.
11. keep animals out of your garden
Once your flower beds are set, you’ll have to maintain them and often animals can be a threat to your beautiful gardens.
You might have deer eating your flowers, groundhogs ruining your beds, or cats using it as their litterbox. I did find a non-harmful way to keep critters out with a motion-activated sprinkler. You can read more about how I kept the cats out of my gardens with that here.
12. Easy Ideas To Fix Problem Areas
Over time, outdoor spaces will break down from the weather even if you’re on top of maintenance. I had a few projects over the years here that helped me turn eyesores into focal points.
One of which was repainting our shed. Repainting that old shed a vibrant color was a major transformation! We also had a dilapidated garden arbor I restored with paint to make it a focal point. Additionally, I have restored weathered outdoor furniture and painted dingy concrete to keep things looking pristine.
Paint is one of the best ways to refresh any area quickly and easily!
13. Four Season Gardening
Although Spring has just started, it doesn’t hurt to think ahead for other seasons in the garden.
Some plants that bloom in fall need to be planted months in advance. Fall is actually my favorite season in the garden. If you love fall color, think about adding landscape plants that will give you loads of fall color.
Spring is the ideal time to plan ahead for all the seasons in your garden.
Why gardening is good for you
As you can see it doesn’t take much time to refresh your outdoor spaces. Space your projects out over a few weekends and you’ll see a total transformation take place! And it’s such a great feeling when you see your DIY garden project come to life!
Gardening is not only rewarding but it’s a great way to destress and connect with nature. I recently read this article about dirt that says digging in the dirt releases microbes in the soil. Breathing in those microbes releases serotonin production. Isn’t that amazing?
See something you like? Let us know in the comments! Which one of these weekend garden projects would you start with?
Very nice ideas. Has inspired me to get outside. Now if only the weather would cooperate! 😁🪴
Thanks, and yes I can’t wait to get started!