SHOW YOUR
GARDEN SOME LOVE
I As relationships go, it’s been on the backburner for a few months. But now is the time to get passionate about your patch again
t’s hard to imagine anything lovable about your garden this month. It’s cold, damp and that bare, bedraggled, weather-battered mess you see from your window bears no resemblance to the vibrant, verdant, perfumed patch of horticultural perfection you lovingly nurtured last summer.
Those ornamental trees you bought for their eerie sculptural forms during the winter have been shredded by Storm Gerda and Storm Brendan; early-flowering bulbs are timidly poking their petals above the surface fearing winter’s final onslaught, and even the fiercely territorial robins are thinking of moving out because the grass looks greener over the fence. But even if the weather is filthy and you can’t get out and do the jobs you know you need to do – such as pruning shrubs, climbers, and evergreen hedges, and giving your borders a boost with some organic feeds – there is one important thing you can do from the comfort of your armchair: plan. Because if you fancy turning your mudheap into a Garden of Eden this summer, start preparing the ground now. Even the smallest of backyards can be turned into a sensory sensation by the simplest of touches, the most obvious being fragrance and colour. But the easiest are lights.
Soft lighting, comfy seating, trickling water… add some wind chimes and suddenly you’ve created your own outdoor spa! The majority of gardens have shady corners which could benefit from a little subtle lighting, either by candlelight (in a nice tall glass jar obviously, we don’t want the slightest breeze to snuff out any flames of desire), full-size bulbs strung for a rustic overhang between posts or - yes it’s cheesy but remarkably effective twinkling fairy lights. Think about it. If fairy lights can transform even the dingiest of artificial Christmas trees, what could that soft glow achieve on a warm summer evening wrapped around the balustrades on a veranda or swinging lazily from a pergola. Better still, hang them round the low-hanging branches of your favourite tree to create the ultimate chill-out zone… with the aid of a soft-seating zone and an endless stream of G&Ts, naturally.
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PROPERTY NEWS
