How to Construct a Courtyard

Courtyards can be constructed in a small space.

Courtyard gardens dates back more than 5,000 years. The fully walled garden space is designed to be beautiful and private. It can provide an attractive outdoor entertainment space for personal engagements or business parties and a growing space for vegetables and herbs for the cook. The garden can provide a communal space if built between apartment buildings or homes in the city, or a private garden space if walled in by a fence or hedge in rural or urban settings. It is important to have a design in mind before you begin constructing the courtyard area.

Things You'll Need

• Decorative elements
• Furniture
• Sand
• Paving stones
• Plants
• Design blueprints

Instructions

1. Select a location for your courtyard and wall it in if it is not a space already surrounded by buildings. Use hedges, fencing or brick to wall in any open sides on your space. Add ivy, grapes or other climbing plants to cover fences or walls with greenery or paint the walls to match the home's exterior so that the outer perimeter is cohesive.

2. Lay a floored entertainment area. Choose a design that will contain and complement the shape of the outdoor furniture you intend to place in the space. Begin by levelling the area: layer with an inch or more of compacted sand that you throw down in layers and tamp with your feet, a tamping tool or a lawn roller and then level by dragging a 2-by-4 over the surface to smooth it. Lay the brick or concrete-tile flooring on your level surface, which places your entertainment area typically in the center of the courtyard or against the living space. Add a wedge of cement around the outside edge of your flooring to help keep it in place.

3. Add outdoor accessories to the floored area to create a comfortable entertaining space. Added items such as outdoor fireplaces, pergolas or gazebos, tables and chairs.

4. Add decorative features in large open spaces in the courtyard, such as bird baths, fountains, raised growing platforms, ponds, benches and statues, to create subsections of your courtyard.

5. Lay walkways that adjoin the main sections of your courtyard. Use paving stones or brick to set down pathways in the courtyard according to your design.

6. Plant the garden areas of your courtyard. Mixing decorative and consumable vegetation will offer variety. Select a mixture of warm and cold weather plants, so that they will bloom at different times keeping your garden attractive longer.

References

• "Courtyard Garden: Imaginative Ideas for Outdoor Living"; Toby Musgrave; 2004
• HGTV Creating: A Courtyard Garden
• Southern Living: Creating a Courtyard Garden
• Acs Garden: Courtyard Gardens