Finally! The winter is over, and the springtime has begun, which means you can start to spend more time outdoors. In this article, we explore some of our top selection of garden ideas you can begin to implement in your own space during the springtime, from growing your own vegetables to creating a firepit. Let’s begin.
Have A Spring Clean
Once you return to your garden after a long winter, you may find it in a state of disrepair, with your space looking barren and lifeless after months of bitter cold. To start, you can collect all the fallen leaves and natural debris off your lawn space and add it to your compost pile. If that sounds too labour intensive, shredding or strimming over the dead leaves with a lawn mower helps to make an effective “mulch,” creating a nutrient rich soil for future planting.
In any case, with the leaves cleared or scattered, it’s likely that your lawn will look worse for wear, with dead grass and lots of muddy patches. Resowing grass seed is an essential springtime task, to bring a sense of life and colour back into your space.
Open Up An Outdoor Larder
Growing vegetables is a great way to give your garden a sense of purpose and function over simple aesthetic reasons. The springtime is the perfect time to start growing vegetables, though we recommend keeping them under cover to maintain a consistent temperature. If you cannot afford, or do not have the space for a full greenhouse, don’t worry. You can achieve the same effect with garden grow tunnels, which can be bought relatively cheaply, or made from scratch.
Examples of vegetables that thrive in springtime temperatures include onions, carrots, broccoli, and garlic. Growing not going to plan? Don’t worry! Failure is a great teacher, and even unsuccessful yields have their uses; rotten vegetables can be added to your garden compost bins, to help serve as useful fertiliser for future planting projects.
Keep Warm
Don’t let the sun in the sky deceive you! Though the skies are clearer, and the sun is shining, the early springtime can still be quite chilly. The colder weather dissuades many homeowners from spending time in their garden spaces, but this need not be the case. Outdoor heaters have grown in popularity these last few years, as they allow people to treat their garden as more of an additional room to their home, as a space to entertain guests or simply sit back and unwind for the evening. These can be bought as either gas or electric heaters and can be operated with a simple switch of a button.
If you want to create a sense of heat but do not have the budget for a larger outdoor heater, you could instead invest in a firepit. There are plenty of designs available for firepits, but the most popular are wide, metal or terracotta dishes. A firepit can act as a gorgeous decorative feature for your garden, even when they aren’t in use. Top tip: it’s important to make sure the surface of the space you place your firepit on top of is appropriately fire rated. For example, stone patios and composite decking should be fine, whereas timber boards, as a natural material, are more flammable.
Outdoor Furniture
Once you have a garden focal point with a firepit, you’ll need something for your guests to sit upon. There are many different materials you can choose from for garden furniture, including wicker, natural and synthetic rattan, recycled plastic, metal, and traditional timber. Each have their own advantages, disadvantages, and unique sense of visual identity.
Unless your seating space is situated underneath an outdoor shelter, such as a pergola, you will need to make sure your furniture is suitably protected from the elements. Timber and metal furniture, if left exposed and untreated for example, is prone to the damaging effects of rot and rust, respectively. If you want something low maintenance, we recommend choosing either powder coated metal, rattan, or recycled plastic furniture, as these are the easiest to dry off should any rainfall come.
Refresh Your Fencing
When giving your garden an overall clean, it’s easy to neglect your fencing. Most garden fences are made from timber, which will need to be appropriately treated with preservatives if you want to retain the naturalistic look or given a lick of paint to keep your chosen colour looking fresh and vibrant. For 2024, pale pastels colours are out, instead being replaced with more intense, kitsch colours, like yellow. Alternatively, if you want something more timeless that will transcend passing trends, we recommend choosing a darker colour, such as black or grey, as these are always fashionable, and help the more natural tones in your garden stand out.
If you want to update your fencing completely, consider opting for alternative fencing materials than just traditional timber and concrete. For example, certain composite fencing solutions even allow you to retrofit brand-new panels in between your existing concrete or timber posts. This allows you to keep the skeleton of your original fencing investment, while giving it a much-needed makeover. Furthermore, because composite fencing comes supplied in a range of premium colours, it saves you the chore of annually repainting your posts and panels too.
To conclude, with the weather warmer, you can begin to enjoy your garden space again. Giving your space a good spring clean gives you the foundations to implement your new garden ambitions with ease. By investing in growing vegetables, you could potentially save money in the long term, by harvesting your own produce for your own cooking. By creating an outdoor seating space, either from decking boards or patio slabs, and populating it with furniture, you can create an area to entertain friends. Adding a heater or a firepit will help to keep your space warm and cosy, even in the cooler evenings. Finally, giving your fencing a much-needed upgrade can massively change the overall look and feel of your space, transforming your garden into something that looks brand new. We hope you have found our garden suggestions inspirational and informative and wish you the very best of luck whatever you choose to do!