What Is 'Woodscaping' And How Can It Benefit Your Landscape?
Timber has long been a preferred landscaping material for edging gardens and containing compost piles. Today, homeowners are pushing the material further, going so far as to replace lawns with timber features like decks, patios, and walkways. Contractor finder site Thumbtack noted a 25 percent drop in sod installation among their customers in 2024, for example. Any type of hardscaping you might include in your backyard design, from pathways to pergolas to permanent planters, can be classed as woodscaping so long as it's made of, you guessed it, wood!
The backyard timber trend is perhaps unsurprising. After all, who likes mowing lawns? Plus, wood has near endless applications in the backyard. Use lumber to to style a garden bench; build a play area, privacy fence, wood-plank pathway, or patio; make safe a sloping backyard with a retaining wall, steps, or a deck; grow food in raised beds made from rot-resistant lumber or landscape timbers or gardens defined by landscape timber edging; or decorate a water feature with a bridge. The list goes on and on.
Most backyard hardscaping projects that use timber are DIY friendly and require basic tools that are affordable to buy or easy to borrow. The wood itself is also affordable: A bundle of Backyard X-Scapes Natural Eucalyptus Wood 6 Inch Solid Logs for Garden Edging costs just over $27. You are, of course, not limited to landscape timbers for your projects. Any type of wood, from popular pine to durable hardwood, can be used outdoors (with a few caveats) and it's available everywhere. Better yet, get wood for free; disused pallets or demolition barn timber work great in the garden.
Woodscaping pluses: From less mowing to cultivating a natural outdoor aesthetic
Aesthetically, woodscaped elements fit perfectly in wooded backyards, naturally adding to the wilderness aesthetic of the trees and their understory. Climbing plants naturally cling to the roughened surfaces of wood pergolas and frames and similar structures, transforming them from purely functional to highly decorative backyard features. Think climbing roses for gorgeous towering blooms or that fragrant wildlife favorite, honeysuckle. If your interior design features a lot of wood, continuing the theme in your backyard creates visual flow.
Timber features like pathways, decks, and patios give you a comfortable spot to enjoy your yard from, whether that be on two feet or seated in a comfortable chair. Raised beds make good use of a disused patch of lawn. Woodscaping might even pay, quite literally. A new wood deck or patio numbers among the lawn and landscaping tips to affordably boost your property value. These fixtures decrease the need for mowing, raking, weeding, and more. Note, however, that timber fixtures require their own special care. You need to re-stain timber features every two to three years and deep clean them annually.
Sustainably sourced timber grown in responsibly managed forests dramatically outperforms other common landscaping materials — think concrete and steel — in carbon footprint. Even composite lumber, made by combining waste wood fibres with recycled plastic, lasts decades outdoors. Treated timber, often cut from cedar, pine, and redwood trees, is well known for its natural weather resistance. Just be cautious that it may be treated with creosote or other chemicals and not suitable for food gardens or use near sources of drinking water.