I need to fix my garden before summer! It’s probably the biggest home priority I have right now. Pretty safe to say it’s been neglected for years. That being said my garden is generally a sociable place with people coming over in the summer, so I need to get it to a respectable level of tidiness. At least to a point where I can stop making excuses for the overgrown flowerbeds and trees. Ok so I’ve done a bit of research and I think I’ve got my plan.
Your garden’s purpose and maintenance required should be the biggest considerations when fixing up your garden. Whether you need to allow for children or pets are important considerations too, particularly when thinking about flowerbeds, your lawn and garden furniture.
So I’ve got some keen gardener friends, who I have spoken to and I’ve trawled the internet for tips and advice. To be honest, I don’t want to spend too much money, but I want my garden to look good. What’s my plan – well let’s get into that.
Fixing My Garden – My Thought Process & Plan
Before I get my spade out, I want to make sure I’m not digging myself a hole I do not want.
The vision I have for my garden is a place where kids can play and a space where we can socialize with our friends and family. To be honest I don’t really want to grow any vegetables at the moment. I’m not really that green-fingered either, so I want a low maintenance place. That being said I like lawns, I’m not a fan of artificial grass. I like the look of plants too so going for some evergreen planting options is probably the right way to go.
My garden’s not the only thing that needs sorting out though. My fencing is, well, falling apart. I’ve included some pictures below.
I also have this metal canopy structure that I think could provide some nice shade, and a place for people to sit – So I’m going to repaint that and get rid of the step you can see.
I had an area of the garden concreted last summer and it’s looking, well not great, so I need a plan for that too.
I’m going to do this on a budget as well and means I’m doing all of the jobs on my own.
Got to say, this has been a really good exercise to organise my thoughts. Anyway, now that I know what I’m after, this is my plan to fix up my garden
- Lawn – Get it Green and fluffy – I’m going to aerate my lawn with a spade to allow for better drainage. I’m going to use a fork spade to do this. Then I’m going to apply some lawn feed and water when it doesn’t rain and see what happens.
- Fencing– There’s a wall at the back of my garden with an exposed area but with a metal frame. I’m going to put some fence paneling there myself. For the remainder, I’ve got some concrete posts that the fences slot in, so can just buy some standard 6X4 fence panels to put in there.
- Concrete Posts – My Concrete posts are a little bit ugly. The previous owner of my home most likely spray painted the fencing and it’s stained the posts. You can see it in the picture above. I’m going to get some paint to cover this up
- Concreting – So I got an old greenhouse removed from my garden and had it concreted by some tradesmen. Unfortunately, it’s looking a bit sandy, I’m not really happy with it. I’m going to buy some quick-dry concrete to cover it up. I may even paint it. Let’s see how much the concreting takes out of me.
- Metal Canopy – I’ve inherited this metal canopy from the previous owners of our property. It’s got a corrugated plastic covering that needs replacing. I’m going to sand down the metal and re-paint it. I’m also going to replace the plastic and knock out a redundant brick step under it.
- Jet-wash the path – I’m going to clean the path with a jet-wash. I already own a Karcher jet wash that has a circular brush thing allowing you to cover a larger surface area, so I’m going to give that a go too.
And once I’ve done that I’m going to treat myself to some garden furniture. Again I’m not looking to overspend but there are a few things that I’m thinking about in terms of storage of anything that I buy when I’m not using it etc. Just in case you are facing the same dilemma, this is what I’m thinking.
Looking For Easy To Store & Low Maintenance Garden Furniture
I’m looking for low maintenance garden furniture that is easy to store. I’m really paranoid about the cushions growing mildew or being wet to a point where I can’t really use it because… well it gets a bit disgusting.
Essentially when it comes to storing cushions for your garden furniture, the approach you should take is to store in a dry, preferably cool place and above ground. This should keep your cushions in good shape and stop insects from getting into them. That’s the general advice that’s around.
I have a garage at the back of my garden. I intend to store my cushions in a storage bag on some shelving that I have in there. If you don’t have a garage, then, of course, you can store them in your home or a shed.
You could also go for a storage box outside, which lots of people too. This works fine. Just make sure it’s watertight – that’s important. I would also look to put in on something like a wooden pallet. Even if it’s raised off the ground just a little bit, this will help keep rodents and insects out.
When it comes to garden furniture options, there are so many choices when it comes to material, and of course, the price comes into play here here as well.
I’ve always liked the look of wicker furniture but knew nothing about it. I looked into it in quite a lot of detail. I’ve included what I found in my post here.
Long story short after doing my research I think going for a synthetic resin wicker set is probably for me.
The reason I chose this type of garden furniture set is that it’s lightweight, weather-resistant, and will last if we look after it.
Being lightweight for us means we can easily move the furniture around or store it away for winter without injuring ourselves.
It’s weather-resistant – so it’ll look great year after year as long as we don’t leave it out in direct sunlight, but that goes for most garden furniture. We will need to wipe it down every so often to stop mold and mildew from growing on it.
There are of course other option like stainless steel or teak garden furniture sets which also look great. The issue I had with them is the heavy weight and maintenance required (looking at the teak) to keep them looking in good shape.
To Summarize…
Right guy’s, thank you for reading I have my garden fix-up plan. There’s a lot to do, but I’m feeling pretty good about getting my garden sorted out.
It’s January at the time of writing this post. I live in the UK and it’s pretty cold as miserable at the moment, so pushing myself out there is not going to be wasy. But you reap what you sow, so I better get on with it.
I’m going to document my garden transformation journey, so come back and visit again to see how I get on (Any guidance welcome!). Wish me luck.