Backyards don't have to take the back seat to your front yard

Our backyard is facing almost due west and without the benefit of any shade trees! Talk about a hot back yard in the summertime! But that still doesn’t keep me from wanting my backyard to look nice and Backyard Living helps me to achieve a nice looking backyard that is easy on the eye when sitting on the deck. Of course, a deck on the west isn’t much fun unless you have a pergola over it and that is what we did this summer, erected a pergola. Now we can enjoy the backyard and the deck no matter what time of day thanks to Backyard Living and their hints, tips and knowledge.

Backyard Living magazine has given us lots of ideas on how to make our back yard and deck more inviting with its array of how to’s, tool suggestions when making improvements and or building something and answers to lots of questions.

Backyard Living is a by-monthly magazine, but so full of wonderful information that it can take you from one issue to the next just learning and applying some of their techniques and ideas.

Backyard Living consists of these departments:
Just Being Neighborly….this is where readers share their ideas on time saving tips, ideas on how to water young saplings, and how to keep your garden tools in good shape and so much more.
Grass Roots Reviews….this is where Backyard Living ask readers to test products such as tillers, outdoor lighting, gardening gloves and flowering plants in their own backyards and then let other readers know how this product fared. The test reader tells us the pros and cons and where you can buy the product they tested. It also tells you how you can become a field tester.
Backyard Makeover….everything you could possibly think of in making over your backyard is in this section, from dressing up your backyard for a wedding to how to prune roses.
Ask Spike….Spike is a carpenter and general contractor and has the answers to questions you wish to pose to him, such as what kind of glue to use in your outdoor projects to fixing wheelbarrow tires.
Backyard Breezes….this is a section devoted to pictures of backyards and people enjoying their backyards.
Hey Neighbor…Look What I Built….this is devoted to readers who built furniture, gazebos, swimming pools, greenhouses or other structures for their backyards and want to brag about it. Plus they give you detailed plans to build something such as a play house for your little ones.
The Plant Doctor Is In…Melinda is the plant doctor and answers your questions about plants and pests in your backyard.
Find M-itch the Mosquito…they hide M-itch somewhere in the magazine and your job is to find him and you let them know where you found M-itch They select the names of 50 readers who correctly found M-itch and those 50 people receive the prize listed in each edition of Backyard Living.
Tips From The Test Kitchen….Mark will help you with answers to your questions about food preparation of things you have grown in your backyard and preserving your garden produce.
Grow It, Cook It….If you can grow it they will tell you how to prepare it, preserve it and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Whatever produce is featured in this department, they have a recipe to go along with.
Backyard Blunders….here readers write in and tell us the blunders they have made in their backyards, most of them being funny to read but of course, if it was us making the blunder we, at the time, probably wouldn’t think it was funny.

In between the departments, Backyard Living is full of beautiful photographs, mouthwatering recipes and solutions to just about any backyard problem. Backyard Living gives you tips on how to feed and house your feathered friends, how to solve problems with pests in your backyard, how to make beautiful containers of flowering plants, how to set a beautiful patio table for a picnic, how to take care of your tools to which tool is best for whatever it is you are working on.

I have kept every issue of Backyard Living and have referred to back issues quite often when trying to improve our backyard.

The one thing I really like about this magazine is that there are no ads in it. Each page is devoted to you, the reader, and how you can have a backyard that you can be proud of.

I subscribed to Backyard Living when they had the charter subscription for $10.98 per year. This is a 54% savings over the original price. International and Canadian subscriptions are also available. Backyard Living is published by Reiman Publications