Rachel Bustin

Building A Child-Friendly Garden

The garden is one place in the home that is a must when you have children. Children need a place to run, to play and to learn about nature and a garden is the perfect place for all that to happen. If you are lucky enough to have a house that is attached to a large expanse of space out the back, then you’re going to be clamouring for ideas on how to make your garden the perfect place for the kids to play.

Adults love a garden to be able to plant beautiful flowers and entertain guests with a delicious barbecue. Children love it as a place to explore, let off some steam and generally just go a little wild outside the house. The key thing that your garden will always need is to be safe. There’s nothing safe about ponds that are open without fencing, low-hanging trees with unruly branches or gravel that just waits around for little knees to land on it. Everything that you choose for your garden is going to impact the safety of your children, so to get it right the first time, check out the tips below for the safest garden possible for your family:

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How To Host The Perfect Summer Barbecue

Now that the summertime is finally here, it’s time to get out into the garden and have that much needed barbecue with the family. Having a barbecue on a sunny day is a great way to spend your summer and have fun with your family and friends. If you want to up your barbecue game this year and impress your guests, here’s how to host the perfect summer barbecue.

How to host the perfect Summer Barbecue

A great setup

The first thing you’ll need to consider when you are hosting a barbecue this summer is where you will sit. Make sure you have enough Garden Furniture for everyone who is visiting you, and also make sure that you leave enough room for the grill to fire up away from everyone. You can even ask your family to bring a chair with them if you don’t have enough!

How to host the perfect Summer Barbecue

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Which Fruit To Grow In Your Garden This Summer

Now that the weather seems to be warming up at last, it is the perfect time for us to get out into the garden and start building our perfect scene for the spring and summer. April is the ideal month to start with many gardening tasks such as mowing the lawn for the first time this year, pruning deadheads from shrubs and getting rid of weeds. Also planning what fruit to grow in your garden this Summer. Also do your research on fruit tree pests UK, so you know how to protect your bushes.

You will likely want to do a bit of landscape gardening at this point in the year and move things around a little to make room for new plants. The perfect plants to introduce into your garden this year are fruits.

Here are the best fruits you can plant in your garden this year:

Strawberries

Everyone loves strawberries, and they are one of the most loved fruits in the world. Strawberries grow from seed, and it is in April when you will want to plant these seeds ready for them to fruit in the summer. They are easy to sow and germinate by using a small pot or seedling tray, and will likely germinate within a few days or a week ready to grow into a lovely plants which sprouts white flowers in the early summertime.

What fruit to grow in your garden this Summer - strawberries

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10 Gardening Tips that Will Benefit Any Garden

No matter how big or small your garden or how experienced a gardener you are, you need these top gardening tips because, after all, your garden is a haven of peace and tranquillity… or you would like it to be!

Isn’t it great, coming home from a busy day at the office to sit and enjoy the sunset from the garden bench surrounding by sweet-scented flowers and pretty shrubs? Or is it? Are there shrubs that seem to have taken over the flower border and, try as hard as you might, delphiniums just won’t flourish in your outdoor space? You need these top gardening tips…

10 gardening tips to benefit your garden

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Where to Place the Hot Tub in your Garden

Hot tubs are a home accessory that was previously only for the extremely wealthy. You might have been lucky enough to enjoy one in a luxury hotel room. But for the most part they just weren’t an accessory most people could previously afford. Since demand has increased, hot tubs are much more of an affordable luxury and now there are over 300,000 households with hot tubs in the UK, compared to around 100,000 in 2013.

The many benefits of a hot tub are much more recognised and people have hot tubs for socialising, for muscle therapy, for relaxation and as an addition to a swimming pool set up.

Where to place the hot tub in your garden

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There are various different types of hot tub available, including free standing hot tubs, built in hot tubs and even extremely inexpensive blow up hot tubs you can purchase from supermarkets.

Homes are now much more likely to have a hot tub, which presents a whole new area of home decor consideration. Just as you have to plan out how a swimming pool works in relation to a house, or an outdoor seating area, you have to put equal planning into your new, hot, bubbling arrival.

Where will it go? Can it be placed on any surface? How far away from the house should it be? Will it look nice?

Take a look at these handy hot tub placement Q&A’s to help you get your hot tub installation absolutely right:

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3 of Britain’s Most Beautiful Gardens

Spring is here now and Summer is on the doorstep. So now is the time to plan those long lazy days in your own garden. To give you some inspiration you might want to head to three of Britain’s most beautiful gardens to gain ideas for yourself. For this article, we’ve teamed up with Oldrids and Downtown, retailers of stunning conservatory furniture to get you in the mood.

Britain's Most Beautiful Gardens

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The Alnwick Garden

The Alnwick Garden is home to famous fountains, poison gardens and one of the biggest tree houses in the world. This garden is perfect for adventures and lots of fun. Set in 14 acres there is plenty of space for all the family to roam about. You need to be careful though as some of the 200 plant species are deadly. 

The poison garden is locked by cast-iron gates with skull plaques saying “These Plants Can Kill”, the garden includes strychnos nux-vomica, hemlock, Ricinus communis and more deadly plants. However, the garden stands for a much greater purpose as it aims to educate people on drugs by featuring cannabis, coca and papaver somniferum.

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