How to Make Your Backyard Lush With Ivy or Bamboo

Ivy

• 1

  Choose the spots in your backyard where you want the ivy. Create beds along brick walls, near fences you'd like to cover or underneath mature trees that grow in your yard. Select areas where you find it hard to grow grass, and allow the ivy to cover those spots.

• 2

  Fill containers with ivy, and place them in strategic spots around your yard. Fill hanging baskets with ivy, and hang them around a deck or back porch. Plant ivy in urns, and allow it to trail out and over into beds or bare spots that surround the urns.

• 3

  Plant your ivy in spots that receive some shade each day. Ivy is hardy, but it's not made for the relentless blaze of full sun. Ivy grows best where it gets respite from the heat and intensity of full sun.

• 4

  Install items for the ivy to climb. Choose one or more trellises, and position them strategically around the yard. Install a small wall near a pond or wooded alcove and allow your ivy to cover it for a picturesque look. Create an arbor over a walkway, and train the ivy to cover it.

Bamboo

• 5

  Locate areas of full and direct sunlight in your yard. Install the bamboo in these spots to ensure the optimum growth of the plants. Mulch the area around the roots of the bamboo to protect them in the early stages of growth.

• 6

  Distribute the bamboo among several spots throughout the yard, rather than limiting it to one or two areas. When visitors to your yard are able to notice the bamboo growing in several areas instead of just one, it adds to the look of abundant greenery in the space.

• 7

  Create specific effects with the bamboo. Plant bamboo along the fence line that separates you from your neighbor to create a wall of privacy. Position a grouping of bamboo plants in the midst of a sunny spot in your yard to create a patch of shade.

• 8

  Install two or three statues that follow an Asian theme. Bamboo grows naturally in many Asian countries, so creating an Asian atmosphere in your yard blends naturally with the look of bamboo. Plant bamboo behind or near the statues to add natural emphasis to them.