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If you follow me on social media, you’ll be aware that last summer I treated myself to one of those huge pools for the back garden. Because we were in lockdown I thought “you know what, great, I’ll be in my pool all summer”.

But the Great British weather meant that it could not be. So here we were, with a swimming pool we could barely every go in that you needed a degree in biochemistry to keep clean. Another negative was that it wasn’t doing the grass any good. Then I came up with a plan. We are having our decking laid in a couple of days and when it is done I am going to get a Lay Z Spa. Seeing that we are starting to get back to normal, I want to get the garden sorted as soon as possible so I can have the girls round for hot tub nights. As well as the big bits, there are also some little things I want to achieve out there.

Create a herb garden

People are always surprised when they learn how outdoorsy I really am. I guess I don’t come across like it, but I actually lived in a tent for 3 months when I worked a season for Keycamp in France. The idea of just strolling down to my little herb garden and picking some fresh Basil for that evenings pasta dish is incredibly appealing to me. If you want to create your own herb garden you can either plant from seed or just buy the plants and plant them.

Get a nice fire pit or chiminea but NOT a clay chiminea

One thing people are NEVER surprised to learn about me is that I like burning things. Not in a creepy way, I just find it relaxing being sat outside when the sun goes down warming by a fire. In the past, I have had some lovely clay chiminea, but if the wind knocks them over they crack fairly easily. If we do go for a chiminea then we will likely get a metal one like this one. At least then it cannot crack if it falls over. If we don’t go for something like that, we will get a fire pit instead.

Give the garden some colour

Even when my garden looks neat and tidy, it doesn’t particularly stand out. It’s a very plain and boring garden. Don’t get me wrong boring is good because boring is not messy, but it does need an injection of colour here and there. I haven’t thought of a huge number of ideas of how to do this, but I know one thing I am going to do is plant some colourful plants in the borders. The thing is, I am not very good at keeping plants alive (I have even managed to successfully kill a cactus), so I need some really low maintenance ones if anyone has any suggestions?

Make eating outside more of a “thing”

We ate outside a couple of times last summer, but I find it hard to eat outside if it is too hot. We’ve got a great parasol for this year, and due to the decking and Lay Z Spa plan it looks like our table will be in a different location, so I think we’ll try and locate the table somewhere in the shade. I like choosing cute outdoor dining sets as well, so if anyone has any suggestions on these please let me know.

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