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A lot of us find that we get green fingers during the summer and love to take up gardening as an activity to do on those sunny days. However, often we spend hours making our gardens look beautiful during the summer only to forget about them and neglect them through the winter. This can turn into a vicious cycle of then having to spend ages concentrating on your garden when the weather eventually gets warmer again, to make up for the months and months of weed growth and overgrown hedges.
There are things that you can do to ensure your garden looks great throughout the year and this can shift your perspective from seeing your garden as solely a place for the summer to being a place you can enjoy and appreciate all year round.
Investing in a Shed for Storage
One great way of keeping your garden looking great and avoiding clutter is to invest in a garden shed, which will be one of the best things you can do for your garden. The best bit is that sheds can work amazingly in pretty much any size of garden, since you can get a smaller one if you only require space for a few items, or a larger one if you have a lot of gear to fit inside it.
Garden sheds are amazing for a range of things and are particularly useful for storing things such as a lawnmower, garden furniture and bikes. It means that these things are easy for you to access but aren’t cluttering up your garden or getting damaged from being outside. Shedstore have a huge range of garden sheds which will fulfil all of your storage needs. The high-quality sheds from Shedstore also come in a range of materials, so they can come in either the classic wooden style or metal or plastic styles, depending on your preferences.
Growing Vegetables Throughout the Year
As well as making your garden look amazing, you could also consider making it functional. One way to do this is to grow vegetables throughout the year. Luckily, with different vegetables being suited best to different seasons, you can grow things all year round.
This has many benefits – it will save you money, it is good for the environment since you will not be using plastic packaging and home-grown vegetables are far tastier than shop bought vegetables. To do this, you should section off a corner of your garden and allocate this to be your vegetable patch, taking into consideration how much sunlight the area tends to get. Before growing your vegetables, it is definitely worth doing a little research into what kinds of vegetables are in season and what their needs are, in terms of spacing, watering and sunlight. From comforting potatoes to fresh tomatoes and courgettes, you will feel so much better knowing that your vegetables are straight from your back garden and haven’t been flown or driven in from afar.
Creating Spaces for Wildlife
Of course, your garden is a place for you to enjoy and appreciate, but you should also make a conscious effort to ensure that your garden is a safe and welcoming place for the surrounding wildlife.
There are many ways you can do this. For example, having a bird feeder and regularly filling it up with birdseed will help attract and support smaller bird breeds. You could also have an area of your garden that you keep wild and allow the lawn to grow, which will encourage the growth of wildflowers – great for insects and bees! Having tucked away corners of your garden with hedges growing in them are really good for hedgehogs and are much better than any manmade ‘hedgehog home’ you can buy. It is important to remember that since these animals are wild, they are able to fend for themselves, so creating wild areas for them to live in is the best way to look after them.
Make a Sheltered Area
If you are keen to use your garden through the winter as a place to sit in, why not consider getting a shelter? This could either be a fully enclosed area such as a summer house, or it could be an outdoor seating area which can be covered with an outdoor shade sail. This will allow you to wrap up warm and sit outside for your morning coffee, which can be a refreshing start to the day.
This will also be beneficial during the summer, particularly when the direct sun is too intense and you are trying to avoid getting burnt. No matter the time of year, a sheltered area will be great both for yourself and for social occasions. It can be pretty therapeutic to sit outside during stormy weather, without having to get completely cold and wet in the process. Additionally, fresh air is essential for both your physical and mental health, so simply sitting outside for twenty minutes a day whilst reading a book or replying to emails can be extremely beneficial.
Put Up Some Fairy Lights
A really effective way of keeping your garden attractive even throughout the winter months is to put up a few fairy lights, which will make your garden feel super cosy and comforting, no matter the weather. You can completely alter the mood of your garden with fairy lights, varying from a warm summer evening, to a golden autumn afternoon, to a cosy winter morning.
Gardens are such an amazing addition to a home but it is easy to take them for granted when you are used to having one constantly. Having the freedom to be outdoors without having to step outside of the confines of your home is an ideal situation. There is nothing at all stopping you from going outside in your dressing gown! It is definitely worth spending a bit of time keeping your garden looking great and helping the environment whilst doing so. It is your chance to completely customise an outdoor area, which can be really fun if you put your mind to it.