30 easy upgrades for your garden
Have you fallen out of love with your garden? If the autumn tidy-up never happened and you’re feeling uncomfortable about inviting friends around as the weather warms up, now is the time to take action.
There are so many easy ways you can update your outside space without the upheaval or expense of a complete redesign. Sometimes it can be as simple as rearranging your garden furniture, or creating new seating areas. Repainting wooden furniture or a shed also brings swift gratification, and there is plenty of magic you can work with plants, creating new beds or investing in a few large pots.
The first step is simple. Just look. Take a cup of tea outside, move a bench into the sun and rethink your garden. Look critically at the space you have and start by editing out what you don’t want – throw out furniture that is falling apart, pull out unwanted plants and cut back overgrown shrubs. Be brave and imaginative, embrace change – and then spend a hard-graft Bank Holiday weekend putting your plans into action.
1. Revive your lawn
Old-fashioned stripes are back. Scarify the lawn to get rid of moss, give it a feed, and invest in a quality roller lawnmower like the Hayter Spirit 41 Petrol Push Rear-Roller Lawnmower (£339, mowdirect.co.uk). If you’re too disheartened to give it a go yourself, bring in the experts. Green Thumb (greenthumb.co.uk) is Britain’s most widely used lawn-care service with 200 branches.
2. Neaten paths and edging
Cover tired paths with new gravel for an instant makeover. Edge beds with bricks or setts, or track down reclaimed Victorian edging tiles on eBay or Gumtree. Alternatively, buy reproduction rope edging tiles, £5.95 each in terracotta or black, gardenstone.co.uk.
3. Spring clean your terrace or patio
Hire a jet-washer to clean your paths and paving and you’ll be amazed at the results. If you choose to buy one, go for a powerful model with variable jet-nozzle settings like the Karcher K5 Premium Full Control Plus Pressure Washer (£349.99, argos.co.uk).
4. Smarten boundaries
Replace rotting fencing or give an existing fence a coat of preservative or colour to smarten it up, choosing a colour that you can repeat on other timber structures around the garden to give stylish continuity. Cuprinol Garden Shades has dozens of colours to choose from (cuprinol.co.uk). You can also cover an unsightly fence in bamboo, willow or bark screening which comes in handy rolls (from £21.99, primrose.co.uk).
5. Plant pleached trees
A line of pleached trees gives an instant designer look to a garden, and can screen unsightly views. Hedges Direct offers pleached hornbeams with a 2m trunk and 2m-wide trained canopy for £559.99 plus VAT each, minimum order five (hedgesdirect.co.uk).
6. Make a log wall
The pleasing appearance of stacked logs can hide a multitude of sins. Make your own timber log storage frame to sit against a wall, or paint an old Ikea cube bookshelf with outdoor paint and fill with logs. Buy a Wolfcraft metal log frame, 172 x 234 x 104cm, £37.42 from amazon.co.uk.
7. Divide your garden
Like rearranging the furniture in a room, it’s satisfying to change a garden layout. This could be as simple as moving a seating area, but you can also create different enclosed spaces within the garden by planting hedges, putting up picket fencing or using temporary screens such as the filigree metal screens from decori.co.uk. In a long, narrow garden, divide the space into two by creating new borders with a rose arch to connect the two areas.
8. Plant climbers
Hide an ugly fence with a climbing rose or clematis. For a north-facing wall, pale pink English rose ‘The Generous Gardener’ will tolerate shade (£16.50 from davidaustinroses.co.uk) or choose the self-clinging Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris (£13.99 from crocus.co.uk).
9. Design a vertical garden
If you’re short of space, think of going up as well as out. Use wall or fence space to plant a vertical garden with flowers, herbs or other edible crops such as strawberries. The Verti-plant system from burgonandball.com is easy to use and affordable. Each three-pocket planter costs £5.99 and is available in five bright colours.
10. Rethink beds and borders
Dig existing beds over and look critically at them. Remove weeds and overgrown plants, and be ruthless. Consider changing the shape of a border, curving the corners or adding another foot for more depth, and then replant each space using groups of three, five or seven plants rather than singles, which can look messy.
11. Employ a planting designer
If you haven’t the confidence to plant a border yourself, find a local garden designer who offers planting or border design. Alternatively, buy a collection of plants put together by a leading designer: the Piet Oudolf Collection offers curated collections of plants designed to be planted together. Each of the seven collections costs €47.12 (£40) from pietoudolfcollection.com.
12. Weed and mulch
If you have existing flower borders, keep on top of the weeds as they appear. It’s best not to compost the worst offenders (thistles, bindweed or ground elder) as they will reappear wherever you use your compost. Instead, dispose of them in a barrel of water, where they will slowly rot down. To keep weeds down and to make the beds look tidy, put a layer of compost or mulch on top of the soil, spreading it around any existing plants.
13. Buy new pots and containers
It’s amazing how you can transform a tired garden with a collection of beautifully planted pots and planters in different shapes and sizes. You can spend a fortune (see ateliervierkant.com) or be money-savvy (polyresin or cement fibre pots from gardentrading.co.uk, £40-£75). Paint new terracotta pots with lime wash to give them a used patina (Milkweed Garden Pot Paint, £13.50 for 250ml, bauwerkcolour.co.uk).
Chelsea Flower Show 2017: show gardens to look out for
14. Fill your pots with glorious colour
For good-value container displays choose annual bedding plants, widely available as plugs from garden centres or online from thompsonmorgan.com or sarahraven.com – Osteospermum and Arctotis are two low-maintenance, long-flowering bedding plants. Choose a loam-based compost for containers, which won’t dry out as quickly as coir or peat-based ones.
15. Revive pot plants
If you have container plants that are looking a bit wan, either repot them or simply top-dress in their existing pots. This means scraping away the existing top layer of compost and replacing it with a good thumb’s depth of new compost, which will not only instantly smarten it up, but revive the plant with more nutrients. Feeding with a good liquid feed will help too, or make your own from comfrey (high in potash for roots and flower) and nettles (high in nitrogen for foliage).
16. Plant a mini-meadow
You don’t need a country pile to have a meadow these days. Create an urban meadow in a patch as small as a few metres square with seed mixes from pictorialmeadows.co.uk (Classic mix, £15 for 20g). Simply strip the turf or remove any hard landscaping, rake the soil over, and scatter the seeds now for a floriferous summer display.
17. Get ready for entertaining
An outdoor dining table and chair set should be the hub of your garden. The Bali Reclaimed Teak Bench set (£999, gardenfurniturecentre.co.uk) is simple and space-effective, while Graham and Green’s Arden cement-topped table and bench set has a modern aesthetic (£1,555, grahamandgreen.co.uk). Otherwise, renovate existing wooden furniture by giving it a coat of Teak or Danish oil. Both are very similar mixtures of linseed oil and varnish which will help to preserve the wood.
18. Create an outdoor room
Modern materials like poly-rattan and waterproof Sunbrella fabric mean that outdoor sofas and armchairs are better than ever, making it easy to design a cosy outdoor seating area. The rattan Arholma Corner Sofa from Ikea is great value at £510; Habitat’s Bowen 3-chair set can be combined to make a cosy sofa (£895, habitat.co.uk). Add colourful cushions and an outdoor rug to brighten things up (Fab Hab Lhasa Rug, £49.95, cuckooland.com).
19. Create some shade
For those hotly anticipated sunny days, the option of shade is essential. Construct a simple timber gazebo and string a sail up between the posts. Kookaburra garden sails come in squares and triangles, in bright primary colours as well as a range of prints from stripes to florals (from £8.99, primrose.co.uk). If you’re on a budget, buy a second-hand dinghy sail on eBay which will do the job.
20. Light it up
As darkness falls, your garden can become a magical space if you light it imaginatively: string fairy lights around a gazebo, hang colourful lanterns in a tree (Solar Chinese Lantern String Lights, £14.99 from glow.co.uk), or light up a dining table with a giant-sized Anglepoise Lamp (£3,750 from anglepoise.com). It can also be as simple as edging a path with a dozen tea lights in jam jars.
21. Make your garden a food hub
Cooking food outside will reinvent the way you use your garden. Invest in a top-notch barbecue from Heston Blumenthal (Everdure Force 2 burner gas BBQ, £599 from johnlewis.com), or an outdoor Paella Burner (Turia Outdoor Paella Set, £58.99 from thepaellacompany.co.uk).
22. Build a pizza oven
Brick pizza ovens create an attractive hub for cooking or just for warmth when evening temperatures start to drop. Learn how to build a clay wood-fired pizza oven at Kate Humble’s Monmouthshire farm: a day course costs £105 (humblebynature.com). Alternatively, buy an oven such as the Mezzo 76 (£1,079 from thestonebakeovencompany.co.uk) or, for something more portable, the Morso Forno outdoor grill, a stylish cast-iron oven suitable for different types of cooking but especially good for pizzas (£595, johnlewis.com).
23. Encourage alfresco drinking
Make your garden easy to entertain in by building an outdoor bar. Avoid precariously balanced trays of bottles with an outdoor drinks trolley. The teak Victoria Drinks Trolley has two large wheels, making it easy to manoeuvre (£159 from hendersongf.co.uk). Ikea’s white Vindalso model (£80, ikea.com) would suit a more modern garden.
24. Keep warm
Outdoor fire places, fire pits and fire bowls are all the rage at the moment, and make a stylish centrepiece for the garden by day as well as a hub of warmth and light in the evening. The choice is endless, with sleek bioethanol fireplaces for the urban garden (try urbanfires.co.uk) contrasting with rustic iron fire bowls such as the Kadai from indianfirebowlcompany.co.uk.
25. Get a tent
Transport evening guests to a different place by putting up a Moroccan yurt or Indian tent for the summer. The Raj Tent can accommodate 24 guests, and costs £5,250 from rajtentclub.com. Accessorise with furniture, cushions, lanterns and votives from the same source for an evening to remember.
26. Update play equipment
Entice the children outside with some new play equipment that is easy on the eye. Imagine their faces if they opened the door to find the magical All Out Play Fort (£1,695 from justoutdoortoys.co.uk) or the candy-striped Pink Fairy Wigwam (£99, notonthehighstreet.com). If you prefer not to see the children’s toys, you can sink a trampoline into the ground and surround it with tall grasses, or screen a climbing frame by planting a living willow wall or an instant hedge (instahedge.co.uk).
27. Get a pool
It might not be the most aesthetic addition to the garden, but in a hot summer, an oversized paddling pool can be huge fun. The 12ft-diameter Round Frame Pool is big enough for the whole family and in white it isn’t too much of an eyesore (£219.99, argos.co.uk).
28. Add a water feature
Bringing water into the garden plays to all your senses. If you have space, you could make a large wildlife pond and use the spoil to recontour your garden; in smaller gardens, make a mini-pond from a galvanised wash tub, planting it up with miniature waterlilies and other aquatic plants. The sound of water is incredibly calming; Haddonstone offers a range of fountains including the bowl-shaped Romanesque Fountain (£489) or the contemporary AquaStack (£295, haddonstone.com).
29. Grow your own
Growing your own fruit and veg can really reconnect you with your garden, and building raised beds can make the whole rigmarole much less daunting. Make your own from sleepers or buy a kit from Woodblocx, which come in any size you request. The optimum width of a raised bed is about a metre – wide enough to reach over – and they can be any length you like, ideally with some longer than others for larger crops like potatoes. For small spaces, a planter on legs is ideal, such as the Wall Hugger Trough Planter (£119, vegtrugs.co.uk). Even on a balcony you could grow strawberries or trailing cherry tomatoes (‘Tumbling Tom’ or ‘Romello’) in a hanging planter.
30. Get a greenhouse
Growing plants from seed is completely compelling and it means that you can cheaply supply yourself with beautiful flowers each year to keep your garden looking wonderful all summer long. A greenhouse isn’t essential but it certainly helps, and although you can spend a fortune with companies such as Gabriel Ash, Hartley Botanic and Griffin Glasshouses, it’s also possible to find excellent budget options too, from the mini Forest Garden Victorian Tall Wall Greenhouse (£359.99, twowests.co.uk) to the 6 x 4ft Eden Aluminium Popular Silver Greenhouse (£329.99, homebase.co.uk).
Clare Foster is the Garden Editor of House & Garden
