Making Our House A Home | The Garden Part One

Since it’s National Gardening Week, what better to celebrate than try and overhaul our outdoor spaces, especially since Spring is now in full swing. Trying to sort out our garden is a massive challenge anyway since there are a couple of old metal post holders still in the ground, as well as rotten borders and a really bad lawn where we’ve had the trampoline. Thankfully this will be going to a new home shortly, and we’re going to invest in a smaller one for the boys.

Luckily, there are some small saving graces such as our decking, and we do have enough space for the boys to play outside come the warmer weather, the only problem is I don’t want to let them out there because it’s not built for purpose. I can never just say ‘oh let’s have a day in the garden’ when the weather is nice, it’s always about finding somewhere they can run around with the risk of tripping or falling over the vegetable patch or hitting their head on a rogue bit of brick.

Work on our garden starts on the 9th May thank goodness. We’re ridding of the vegetable patches down the left hand side and they’re being replaced with simple slabs to make a patio area for the boys to ride around on their bikes or scooters. The flower border to the right is being dug up completely and is being replaced with turf, and the back border is being halved, meshed and shingled so we can get some pot plants on top.

However, in the mean time it’s still nice to bring a bit of colour to the garden so Toby and I, along with Ocean Loans, have been busy in getting a few things ready for the garden. It was a chance for Toby and I to spend some time together while Ted was asleep, a chance to get some fresh air and just a chance to try and enjoy what we can of the garden while the sun was out.

We decided to focus on a small area which included the area under the kitchen window, and the decking area. Armed with just £60, this is what we’ve managed to come up with. I love that, even with only a small amount of money, you can revamp a good section of the garden, bring a bit of life and colour to your outdoor space and, hopefully, once we get the rest of the garden done, we can continue this theme.

Being a country girl I do love lots of wild, meadow-esque flowers but I’m going to save them for when the big overhaul is done. So what did we get? We got “easy to grow” flowers, because I’m totally rubbish at gardening, even though I do like to get stuck in when I’ve got the time. I also got these because it’ll give Toby plenty of time to have a good go at the whole gardening thing.

Even though these are all in ceramic pots, I’m planning on getting some alternative pots; watering cans, welly boots, crates and the like. I think these would look really cool dotted around, and we’re going to get Toby’s Pop to do us some hanging baskets this year, which will look beautiful round the decking!

I’ve also made a small start on the herb garden. You can probably tell we’re trying to revive the mint, but I’m hopeful we can save it, and we also have some sage and oregano – I think that’s going to go in the crates when we get them. I literally can not wait for some more sunshine so I can enjoy this little corner of decking and flower heaven and so that the boys can enjoy their back garden at home.

*I was challenged to update my garden for Spring with a budget of £60 provided by the company.