Prepping the outdoors for summer.
The weather this spring has been a bit hit-and-miss, but if last week was anything to go by, I’m optimistic that summer may not be too far away.
We like our garden to be an extension of our indoor space when it’s warm so the other weekend, as the sun beat down upon us, we decided it was time to get our garden ‘summer ready’.
This is a ritual we do every year to revive our outdoor space after the bleakness of winter.
Refreshing the foliage
After enduring a barren looking garden during these colder months, it’s nice to spend some time tidying up and refreshing the plants.
Our garden is lined with huge trees, which require trimming and shaping at least twice a year. Their first ‘haircut’ of the year – which always happens around this time – always makes the garden much neater and makes me want to use it more.
It’s also nice to inject some new, fresh colours once the weather turns milder. This year we took to our local garden centre to pick some vibrant new blooms, which have instantly perked up our garden.
Dusting off the barbecue
We all love a good barbecue, don’t we? Summer just isn’t summer without one.
Because of this, getting it out of storage seems like a major step towards acknowledging the warm weather may start to stick around for longer.
One of the first things we do when we think summer might be on its way is give ours a good clean. After all, we wouldn’t want to accidentally cook any spiders who had been using it as their winter home.
Cleaning off the outdoor furniture
When it’s hot outside it’s nice to have somewhere comfy and clean to sit and enjoy the sun.
Some of our outdoor furniture is too big to stow away during the winter so we always spend a day hosing it all down and cleaning it off.
We also wash all the cushion covers – which do get stowed away – to make sure everything is fresh and bug-free.
Hosing down the fire pit
One of the things I love about summer is the light evenings. One of the things I don’t love about summer is how the temperature can drop in the evenings.
That’s why I love my fire pit. Not only does it look stylish, but it keeps us warm when the nights start to cool. It definitely helps us make the most of our garden.
It’s also pretty romantic to cuddle up next to it together once the children are in bed.
Outdoor lighting
Not only do we like to stay warm in the evenings, but we also like to be able to see once the natural light fades.
We have some nice, subtle lights for our garden – mainly tea light holders, small solar fairy lights and deck lighting – but I’m actually hankering after some better outdoor lighting this year.
Tea lights, fairy lights and even our colour-changing conical light can be pretty, but they’re not very practical. I’d like to install some slightly more powerful outdoor lighting to help us enjoy our garden in the evenings and also give us some security. Once we get that, I think our garden will just about be ‘summer ready’.
I bought this pretty tea light holder for the garden a couple of years ago, although still haven’t gotten around to putting it up – oops!
How do you get your garden prepped for summer?
Please note: this post has been produced in collaboration with Tesco.
This was first published on Chez Mummy