Inspiring Ideas to Jazz Up Your Garden

Hello all! I’m Sally and I blog over at Life Loving. My blog is my way to inspire others to get out and about and enjoy life more. I live by the motto ‘ketchup tomorrow, relish today’.  I’m here today giving some of my tips on how you can jazz up your garden – all ready for summer!

If you are lucky enough to live in a home with a garden, you’ll know exactly how much you appreciate the extra space and freedom that a garden can give you. Even if it’s a small patio, a balcony or perhaps you are lucky enough to have a large garden full of flora and trees, you can make the most of your garden by adding some personal touches. It needn’t cost a small fortune either. You can really make an outside space sing by just spending some time, and perhaps just a little money.

Clean and Tidy

This is the best place to start. If your garden is messy with overgrown bushes or it’s full of weeds, spend some time just sorting through, cutting back, digging up and basically de-cluttering. This will not only make it easier to maintain in the long-run, it will immediately make it look bigger and better. If you have rubbish, broken pots or green fences, cleaning and tidying will add so much to your outside space. If you can borrow a pressure washer, you can blast fences and patios and they will look much brighter.

Add Some Colour

If you’ve got things in your garden that you can paint, why not give them a lick of colour? It’ll not only preserve them against the elements, but it’ll brighten them up and give them a refresh. You can paint fences, sheds, plant pots, anything you like. Make sure you get garden paint, otherwise it won’t provide the protection the item will need and it will fade quite quickly. But other than that, you can be quite creative. I painted some plant pots and added mirror mosaics around the rim. They looked really nice. I’ve also painted some of my fences and my shed. People always comment on the ‘beach hut’ look of my shed!

Get Some Light Features

Solar lights and candles are your cheapest options, but if you want to splash out a little, you could consider getting an electrician in to wire up some outside lighting. That way you can enjoy your garden once the sun has set in the summer and it’s way too warm inside. Solar lights are great as they are self-charging in the right spot and will come on as the sun goes down. Candles can be placed in hurricane vases or storm lanterns, so they will be shielded from any breezes that might extinguish the flames. Go for citronella candles as these help to keep the bugs and flies away.

Accessorise

You can easily add some extra personality to your garden with a few key accessories. You can add outdoor cushions, bunting, water features or ornaments. We’ve got some flamingos in our garden, two at the back in the blackberry bushes and one with solar lights in it on the veranda of our playhouse. We’ve also got some mosaic mushrooms which I made. I bought the mushroom ornaments from Wilkinsons for just a few pounds and then added mosaic shapes to the surface using mosaic glue. I finished them off with some grouting. You can follow my step-by-step guide to making mosaics. The same principles would apply to anything really, plant pots, lawn animals even ceramic welly boots (the next item on my list). We always pop our garden accessories in the shed over winter to help prevent them from getting too weather-beaten.

Garden Furniture

Once you’ve got your space looking clean and spruced up, why not invest in some garden furniture? You’d need not spend a lot. You could go for just a small bistro set, ideal for enjoying sundowners at the end of the day. Or perhaps you fancy a bit of alfresco dining? Then go the whole hot and get an outdoor dining table and chairs, complete with parasol and cushions. If you are on a budget, have a look at second-hand items. You can jet-wash, sand down and paint wooden sets really easily, it just takes time and patience. Here’s what I did with our garden furniture that I bought second hand. Really brightens up the garden eh?

I hope this has inspired you to have a garden spruce up, ready for summer. Feel free to pop over to my social media to see what I’m up to. You can find me here –
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