Rachel Bustin

Bring The Outdoors Inside This Spring!

Now that spring has arrived, we need to ensure our home reflects this. After all, springtime is all about blossoming flowers and longer days,  it’s also one of the best times for your kids as they get to play outdoors. But while there are lots of updates you can do to your garden at this time of the year, you can also do some spring time changes to the inside of your home. One thing you should do is attempt to bring the outdoors inside. A sprinkle of the outdoors can give your home a fab feel.

Here are some ways you can bring the outdoors inside this spring.

Add some outdoor scents to your house

You might think candles are just for winter time. After all, there’s nothing better than cuddling up in front of a cozy fire with some great candles in winter. But actually, candles are a great house accessory for spring too. In fact, it’s an excellent way to bring a touch of outdoor magic to the inside of your home. After all, you can go for outdoor smells such as lavender or honeysuckle which will make you feel like you are in your garden. In fact, if you add one of these candles by the front door, it will give an instant fresh feel as guests enter your home. Therefore, hunt down some great candles which you can add to your home.

Bring the Outdoors Inside with candles and scents

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#MySundayPhoto 07/02/2016

                     spring

7 Hints and Tips on Preparing your Winter Garden for Spring

Well it’s Thursday again so time for another 7 Hints and Tips post. This week I want to help out with tips on preparing your gardens for Spring. Being nearly 40 weeks pregnant at this time of year I am really behind with my Winter garden prep, so it’s going to have to wait this year. The upside is that I have all Summer off on maternity leave so I am sure I will have some spare time to get out and about in the garden.
So It’s that time of year, where we are all waiting for Spring to arrive. Now is the time to get outside in the garden on a dry day and start working on the garden preparing for Spring. If you get some work in now, you won’t be caught out if we get an early Spring. Here are my 7 Hints and Tips on preparing your Winter garden for Spring.
            winter garden

  • Tidy – Now is the time to have a bit of a tidy up. Clear up dead leaves and debris from around the garden, flower beds, boarders and patio areas. Remove any dead flowers that have been missed, prune bushes and shrubs before the first Spring growth.

 

                   
  • Compost Area – Create a compost are where you can put all your garden waste. This could be one you have made yourself with a few pieces of wood, or a compost bin bought from your local garden centre. This is great for putting all your vegetable peelings and grass clippings.
  • Fix Fences and Trellis – Get the fixing jobs out the way so you have more time for planting in the Spring and Summer.
  • Garden Pests – Now is the time to remove and control pests around the garden before they get out of hand in the Spring. Remove hibernating slugs, snails and aphids.
  • Install Water Butts – I have 2 water butts in my garden and I couldn’t do without them. Not only does it save on the water bill during Spring/Summer but the rainwater is much preferred by some ericaceous plants such as Rhododendrons and Blueberry bushes.
  • Greenhouse – If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse (I unfortunately do not due to my garden being a hill so no flat areas for one!) I would suggest giving it a clean out before you start to plant your trays of seeds. This is so that any pests that are hibernating inside are removed.
  • Gardening Tools – Clean and sharpen your gardening tools, to not only prevent the spread of diseases but also to preserve their lifespan.

 

                   
Hopefully these hints and tips will help you get a head start on your garden for Spring. Now I have sat down and written about these tips I have just realised I have a lot of work to do in my own garden!
Do you have any of your own gardening tips on preparing for Spring?
 A Cornish Mum

Monkey and Mouse

It’s Here! Spring has Arrived!

On the 20th March the Spring equinox arrived! An equinox is when day and night are equal in length. So from Friday onwards the day is longer than the night! yippee! We will have much lighter evenings for those BBQ’s and drinks after work in the garden! The most important thing is that as Spring is here, Summer is just around the corner!
For a gardener like me this is a very exciting time of year, there is much to do in the garden to prepare for some wonderful growth, like making sure flowers are prepared to bloom to their maximum and fruit growing to their full potential. The first jobs to do are to tidy and weed the garden. Prepare any raised beds you may have by turning the soil and adding manure/rotted compost ready for planting.
Yesterday my husband and I spent a couple of hours weeding and tidying our 15m x 3m rectangular back garden. That might not sound too bad but I omitted the fact that its on a slope of approx. 45 degrees! I have lots of evergreens and shrubs planted on the slope but hope to eventually construct a rockery there also. There are 30 steps that lead down from the slope garden to our patio, this is where I have all my containers with various fruit bushes and flowers. Its a gorgeous sun trap in the afternoons.
The flowers below are some of my favourites. As you know from my previous gerberas in bloom post gerberas are my all time favourite flowers, primroses are next. They come in many different bright colours, blue being very striking. I had to post a photo of the beautiful daffodil as this time of year they are in abundance on hedges, roadsides and fields. I have no idea what the flower in the bottom right of the photo is called! Its very pretty and was taken by my good friend Caroline. If anyone knows what the flower is, please let us know in the comments!
I bought some little herb plants in Homebase to plant in a container I’ve had spare for a while. You can never have enough fresh herbs, perfect for cooking. I chose oregano because it’s smell reminds me of pizzas! chives and golden thyme, they will come in handy once they grow a bit more.
On my steps leading up to the top slope garden I have various tubs, a couple of these contain coloured heathers which brighten up the area. I bought these last summer as the top photo shows what they looked like then. As you can see now as we are in Spring they are beginning to bud into flowers as shown in the bottom photo. The colours on the heathers will eventually fade as they were dyed.
I would love to hear in the comments about any spring/summer plans you have for your gardens.
Rachel xx

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