Our Garden Glow Up- Summer 2021 Edition

July 7, 2021

Renovations and house stuff are never as quick, easy or cheap as you think. I’d expected all of the work inside our house to be completely done so we could focus on the garden this year. But we’ve not finished the bathroom in our house. Or even started on the garage renovations. So it got us thinking about what to do with our garden this year. We know in a few year’s time we want to get it completely redone, but until then we’ve done a garden glow-up. The space looks a lot nicer and is useable for us.

We still need to do things like buy lawn feed to get that looking nicer, but it all comes in time.

Our garden glow up- The decking

We’re lucky to have quite a large decking directly by our back door which provides us with a lot of space. But one thing that really got in the way was a huge shed taking up a big space. Somehow the previous owners weren’t happy with one shed and they had four. So this shed just sat unused and empty since the day we moved in. So the first thing we did in our garden glow up was tearing it down. And that was much harder than we expected.

Even though it was wobbly as anything, it was pretty solid. But after a few hours and some help from a neighbour we tore the whole thing down. Having the additional space has really opened up that part of the garden. And when we add the window into the garage it will look out on something nice.

Once the shed was gone we could give the poor decking some TLC. We gave it a good power wash and then stained it a nice brown colour. The actual staining took us weeks to finish because it kept raining but it looks really nice. I’ll admit it is a little patchy but it looks miles better than it did.

The old pond

As well as being a fan of sheds / garden room the previous owners were pet mad. And they had a proper pond created in the corner of the decking for their coy carp. So when we moved in we were left with a massive hole that ended up with a combination of rainwater and rotten apples from next door’s tree stuck in it. We have no use for a pond and have no desire to get fish so we wanted to get rid of it.

For our garden glow up we decided to get it filled in and then paved. But my how much it took to fill it up. We paid for a tonne of hardcore which is essentially rubbish. Oh, how I wish we’d kept hold of stuff when we knocked down a wall in the house as we could have saved ourselves some money. We put that in the space and it barely touched the surface so we added topsoil and then sand ready for some paving on the top.

We opted for paving as it was the cheapest option. And when we get the garden renovation done properly we’ll get everything continually decked. But we are hoping to put our inflatable hot tub out there so this could end up being a great spot for it.

Our garden glow up- Fences

Possibly the thing we did that made the biggest change was replacing some fence panels. We are planning to do them all eventually but A, they’re expensive and B, we wanted to do the ones around our decking area first to get that part of the garden more ‘finished’.

We’ve upgraded from 5-foot panels to 6-foot panels for some added privacy, and it’s made a big difference. We opted for a colour called red cedar which is really striking. And I can’t wait to get all of the rest changed over in the coming months/ year.

Our new toys and furniture

We had zero garden furniture before this house so we needed to pick up quite a few items. Trusty IKEA came in trumps with some great bits that weren’t crazy expensive but are solid and feel like they’ll last. All of the items we picked up were from the ÄPPLARÖ range including a massive square table, six reclining chairs, a sun lounger and a bench seat. The bench is great as it holds a bag that fits all six of our chair cushions in. So they’re neat and tidy but close at hand when you want to sit down.

Then our umbrella is just a beast and perfect for someone like me who loves shade. You can tilt it, rotate it and change the direction of cover from the sun so easily. And when we had those super hot days back in June it was so comfortable sitting under here.

Then the final new toy is our BBQ which I left solely to Luke to choose. We’ve only ever had a tiny little round charcoal grill before so it’s nice to have one that’s bigger and sturdier. We’ve only cooked on it a few times and Luke has spent so many hours pouring over YouTube videos and books to learn the art of a perfect BBQ. One, in particular, we’ve been loving is BBQ Revolution by Mitch Benjamin, the founder of the Meat Mitch competition BBQ team. So if anyone knows their stuff it’s him! This book has a great mixture of BBQ classics and slightly more unusual cooks alongside sauces, rubs, cocktails and sides.