How is it already the end of June?! After months of miserable weather, the summer heat finally arrived in full force this month. I wasn’t expecting this kind of heat to be honest and you may see that our grass is starting to look pretty dry in places. I know it will recover (eventually) but for now we are just leaving it alone and only cutting it if absolutely necessary. Would you believe I have been preparing for this summer since last year? I love our garden and it is one of the main reasons why we bought the house in the first place. The second garden has so much potential but we didn’t really get around doing much to it last year. We are lucky that the previous owners bought a bit of land at the back and this year I wanted to make that section of the garden more inviting. We have some big plans for the garden in the future, but for now we are doing smaller updates that will make all the difference. Head over to our garden tour here.
THE SUMMER HOUSE
We inherited this quirky summerhouse and were quite unsure what to do with it first. It is too small to be a proper sunroom so we decided to use it to store our logs. It was very much in need of some TLC and the previously (chipped) purple paint was making it a bit of an eye sore in the garden. I preferred a colour that would blend in rather than stand out and Ronseal’s Forest Green fit the bill perfectly. It was quite a change from the previous purple but it looks so much better. The wood planks were in a bad way so it took three coats to cover the old colour entirely. We had to replace some missing planks and luckily I found some fence panels in Homebase. The materials cost only £50 so the ‘mini’ makeover was very much worthwhile.
VEGETABLE PATCH
I have been dreaming about having my very own vegetable garden one day. As a serial plant killer that was a pretty brave move but I thought I’ve got nothing to lose. We had these vegetable frames built last autumn so that they would be ready for the growing season. I planted a few fruit trees at the time and they had gotten so big over winter that I’ve ended up replanting them on the border. This is a south-facing garden and everything seems to grow very fast. In the spring I planted a bunch of herbs (coriander, mint, basil, oregano, chives etc) and a few vegetables. I definitely over did the herbs. The mint is taking over everything so I need to prepare for it next year. I also planted tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, chillies, lettuce, rocket, asparagus and onions which all seem to be doing well. The heat and daily watering has made a huge difference. I should probably also add that I don’t really know what I’m doing here. I just planted a bunch of herbs and vegetables that we eat hoping that they would thrive and they did! Was can I say.. turns out outdoor plants are a lot easier to keep alive than indoors ones. The cute wooden plant labels are from Amazon.
GARDEN SHED & PLAYHOUSE
The shed and the playhouse at the back needed a lick of paint too. We used Cuprinol’s Shades for both, which is a quick-drying water-based paint. The shed is entirely painted in colour seagrass which turned out beautiful, don’t you think? The coverage was so good we only needed two coats. The paint has blue and grey undertones which makes it super versatile. I had planned to paint the playhouse grey and white but grey looked quite dull next to the green, so we decided to paint the majority of it in the same colour as the shed. I love the combination of Cuprinol’s colours we picked here; seagrass, pale jasmin and silver birch give the playhouse a lovely contemporary feel. It’s worth mentioning that you never really know what the paint will look like until you start painting. Trying testers first helps but seeing it all on a much larger scale is a different story. It’s ok to change your mind half way through if you feel that the paint you picked isn’t quite working out which is what happened to us. Differences in lighting will also affect the paint colour so the same paint can look much darker in a shaded corner (like we have here).
RATTAN DINING CHAIRS & TABLE
The new rattan dining chairs and table were a bit of an impulse purchase. They were 50% off at Dunelm so I couldn’t resist the temptation. I’m also spending a lot more time in our second garden at the moment and absolutely love having a cup of coffee here in the Mornings. At some point we will put a decking here and turn it into a proper entertaining area. It’s not ideal having the tables and chairs on grass but as a temporary solution it will do. I would quite like having gravel here but my husband is not a fan. The rattan chairs are so comfortable. I actually ordered another set first but ended up returning them because they were not comfy at all. The black metal table tends to get quite hot when in direct sunlight, so make sure you’ve got some shade during the day if you end up buying one. Thankfully we only get beaming sunlight midday and the rest of the time you are covered by some shade.
GARDEN PARASOL
Having a south-facing garden means that we are constantly blessed with lots of sunlight. It’s got its drawbacks too which is why I bought a garden parasol to block out any excess light and heat. We need bigger garden furniture here at some point but for now this will have to work for us. We bought this rattan dining set years ago while living in our old house and it has lasted really well. Our parasol does the job but it has faded quite a bit already which is annoying. Scotch guarding or closing it more regularly might help a bit. But it’s been a godsend during the heatwave so I have absolutely no regrets about it.
NEW PLANTS
I planted quite a few new flowers and plants late in the autumn hoping they will flower in the early spring. The alliums are probably my favourite flower at the moment. I should have paired them with some lavender, though technically I guess it’s not too late yet. Both would do really well in this sunny spot. The borders still require quite a bit of work. We’ve got a nice mix of fruit trees and flowers but it’s getting a bit busy in places. Perhaps that will be my ‘job’ for next year.
