Thanks for reading our post! We are looking for ideas to turn this in to a backyard oasis! We really need help with some basic ideas for the (narrow) back yard. We will get fancy after we have the basics down.

Goals: create a visually appealing pathway from the fence gate to the deck, decide on dog friendly ground cover that isn't grass and doesn't attract snakes, add plants, furniture or points of interest where/if necessary. Decide on fence stain color.

Current uses: relaxing/lounging, BBQs and entertaining, play area for dogs, yoga, potential garden, children in the future

Planned updates: fence will be stained (hubby built this with his own hands!). Tentative colors are cherry stain on the planks and black stain on the posts. Open to other ideas.

Style: Collectively = transitional. She = Mid-Century Modern, Hollywood Regency, Classic,Modern, Industrial and Eclectic. He = transitional, traditional, sporty, functional, industrial. The rest of the house is transitional.

IDK if you can tell, but the BBQ patio is located in the middle of the backyard, where you see the house divide in the photos. If we want a path from the gate to the deck, it will need to wind or else we could have an extension of the deck and have the path on one line from the gate to the patio extension and another line for the path from the patio extension to the deck. One straight line will not do for this design, unfortunately.

Planned updates: fence will be stained . Tentative colors include cherry on the planks, and black on the posts. Open to other ideas. Can't use clover (due to bees possibly stinging the dogs) or mint (due to invasiveness) or grass (due to dappling sunlight only PLUS it's very sandy soil since we live in Florida). We don't even need green ground cover, we are happy with mulch or similar. Maybe even artificial turf...maybe. It does rain a lot in the summer so we need something that takes that in to account.

One idea we had is to create a visual line with stained 2x4s or landscape timbers along the tree line and another one near the house, then fill it with mulch and stepping stones. Another idea is to create a walking path of square or rectangle stones and put 9-12 of them in front of the BBQ patio to extend the use of the BBQ patio and allow the path that starts at the gate to continue to the deck in a visually graceful manner. If we did this, what colors would we use? Are there better ideas for a walkway out there? Keep in mind that we want to avoid anything a snake would like to lay on to keep warm in the spring or summer, like big rocks or pebbles that the sun heats up. Also, our dogs sometimes use the backyard to go to the bathroom.

We are in desperate need of a design plan so we can begin. Looking for ideas on a low budget as well as a mid-size budget, but we will spend whatever we need to for the right idea! For now we just need something to take it to the next level and not look so neglected. We also though of extending the patio use by adding a small deck in front of it and creating a deck path from the gate, to the small deck, to the big deck that you see in the photo. Also looking for more contemporary ideas for BBQ patio furniture. That bench is functional but not ideal visually. We will be doing some work ourselves and some will be outsourced. Where should we start? Thank you for your feedback.