Let’s look at what to do in your garden this summer. Last year, during the lockdown, lots of us spent more time outdoors in our gardens than we thought we would of course so it may well have given you some ideas about how to make improvements, add new features and generally use your garden to its full potential. Here we will look at some of the most popular ways that people have improved and made the most of their garden and hopefully give you some great ideas about how to improve yours.
One major issue people have with their garden is the amount of maintenance needed to keep it looking great all year round and a big part of this is weeding flower beds, lawns and in between those cracks in your paving. You can spend hours making it look spectacularly clear of weeds only to discover in a matter of days they are all back with a vengeance. You can get all kinds of membrane and mesh to cover the flower beds after you have deep weeded them which then you can cover with all types of aggregate such a shingle, shale, bark, or stone and all available in so many colours that you can really transform the borders of the lawn. In doing so please add bird feeders in the trees so the wild birds still visit your garden as these can be beautiful to hear and see at feeding time.
A common project these days in your garden is to divide it into areas that focus on different things such as vegetable growing, play areas, relaxation areas, wet areas for swimming or paddling pools and nature areas to attract birds and other wild animals into your garden. If your area is big enough then you can easily separate areas off by removing the top layer of grass and soil in a lawn to make a pathway which you can edge using blocks and fill with a membrane and some aggregates, maybe even to suit your edges and flowerbeds. This divides your space into however many different areas you need or would like with little effort or expense. You are, of course, in control of how big each area should be, so you still retain some communal area too.
Remember when you could get fence panel painting in a massive range of 3 colours? Either brown, green, or grey was your only choice if memory serves me correctly well it’s now a whole new world with massive ranges of different colours available to suit any idea you might have. It’s not only fences either, why not change the dour look of that old shed tucked away up the back of the garden by brightening it up. There are some great examples out there to look at where garden enthusiasts have mixed and matched paint on their fence panels, sheds, summer houses and even railway sleepers so if you are looking to brighten up your garden, please take a look at some of these ideas.
If all of the above sounds a bit too drastic then how about just giving the tired old lawn a makeover. By hiring a small rotavator you can easily remove the top layer of old turf and mud then using a roller flatten it all out, add in your new nutrient-rich top-soil and cover with nice new green rolls of turf to finish and hey presto you have transformed your garden into the new Wembley. A good tip when laying the turf is to lay it one strip with the grass blades laying away from you and then next to it lay it so as the grass blades are coming towards you. This will help give you a nice professional stripped look to the lawn.
Thanks for reading our article on how to improve your garden during the summer of 2021, we hope that this has given you some top tips on how to make the most of whatever sized garden you have. Now, all we need is the weather to shine for us rather than pelt down all summer!
Sarah Wirth
Sarah Wirth works for Wring Builders Merchants as a marketing specialist.