Decorate Your Garden and Treat the Birds

As spring stumbles around, the curtain of grey lifts to reveal the promise of warmer months, and attention inevitably shifts to the garden.

All that rain, followed by sun, followed by rain will see your lawn and weeds grow to epic heights unless you get out there and tame them.

These days outdoor space is scarce and those with any kind of garden are lucky to have it. So we can’t blame you for wanting to enjoy the sunshine in the great outdoors.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a selection of our favourite garden items to help you get the most out of your garden space.

Garden Lights Ideas

There’s nothing quite like sitting out on the patio in the evening, sipping your glass of wine, and watching as the solar lights ping into life.

Ideal in the sunshine, not so much in the winter, solar lights are a great way to make the garden accessible into the evening.

While some are highly decorative, others are camouflaged. But there’s no doubt that solar lights in the garden are an asset in the summer months.

We love our Crackle ball LED solar string lights. They look lovely hung down a fence or wrapped around a bush or small tree. We love the ambiance of the white bulbs, but there’s always an option for multi-coloured lights.

For something a little more ornamental, there’s always a solar-powered LED light-up topiary ball. Available in pink, white, and red, the lights glow golden in the evening.

Or perhaps you prefer something a little different. The Lighthouse LED Solar light rotates around the garden to create a talking point and get the kids’ imaginations flowing.

Garden Planters

Planters are a great way to create accessible snippets of planting around the garden. Whether they’re your only bit of growing area or a portable way of bringing different levels to your garden space, these days planters are available in a wide range of materials.

Our planters include plastic, ceramic and metal, and come in a range of styles and colours to suit every taste. Smaller planters such as the Oakwood effect barrel trough are perfect for a little herb garden for the window sill or just outside your back door:

Herb Garden Tips & Tricks

• Try keeping Mediterranean herbs like Thyme and Rosemary together. These plants prefer free-draining soil, so make sure you include some grit when planting.
• Mint is a herb to be grown alone. While it works ok with lemon verbena, all variations of mint are aggressive growers and will overtake other plants and block out their light.
• Try soaking herb seeds overnight before planting, for quicker germination.
• Rosemary in a small herb garden should be replanted every year to keep growth fresh.
• Larger planters like our Moroccan terracotta effect planter can be used for focal points at the end of a path or at the side of a house.
• These kinds of plant pots are ideal for layered planting, where bulbs and annuals can be layered together to ensure year-round colour.

Layered Planting Tips & Tricks

• Try and aerate the soil for this planting technique. Use additions such as dried leaves and bone meal.
• Add time-release fertiliser pellets throughout the mix to ensure the pot is easy maintenance.
• Put larger bulbs like aliums and daffodils at the bottom of the pot. These need depth for stronger stems that don’t break in the wind.

• Plant bulbs densely for the best displays.

Pots can certainly bring some life into the garden and can save you from the winter blues with some choice colourful plants such as Hellebores and Snowdrops.

Wildlife

The cycle of life is never more visible than in our garden. The trees burst into bud in spring, and go on to a glorious display in summer, only to shed their leaves for a well-deserved rest in the autumn and winter months.

We can all contribute to supporting wildlife in our garden. Something as simple as hanging out a bird feeder, or placing an insect hotel will encourage wildlife to make our garden their home.

Birds make great pest control, swooping in to pick those slugs off of our favourite plants for a nutritious treat. This is the same for hedgehogs, ladybirds (who love aphids), and even wasps (if you can believe it).

So why not open up your garden gates and welcome some wildlife into your garden?

Birds appreciate support especially in the winter when the ground is too hard to find worms, and they need calories to keep warm.

Treat your birds by hanging a feeder from the branches of trees, or setting up a feeding station somewhere in the garden to watch them enjoy their meal.

For those with a crafty mindset, why not try making a bird feeder?

Feeders can be made from anything, including plastic bottles, pine cones, and even Lego.

Give this eco-friendly feeder a go; the birds will thank you for it:

Ingredients:

• Block of lard, [leave it out of the fridge for an hour or so].
• Grated cheese
• Dried raisins
• 1 large apple.
• Garden twine or string

1. Turn the apple on its side, and with a corer, pierce down the centre of the apple several times to remove a rough circular space in the middle.
2. Take a length of twine and thread it through the apple, tying with a double knot at the top.
3. Take the bits of apple you’ve removed, including seeds, finely chop and add to a mixing bowl.
4. Add the grated cheese, raisins, and lard to the same mixing bowl and squish together. Get your hands in there for a good mix. Get the kids involved in some messy fun.
5. Use your hands or a spoon, and load the mix into the centre of the apple until full.
6. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours to set.
7. Tie the apple onto the branch of a tree, or a section of your feeding station, and watch the birds go to town.

If you enjoy lots of birds in the garden, adding a birdhouse is a wonderful way to attract nesting birds.

We stock a range of birdhouses and nesters, which look lovely when placed out of the wind and in good spotting distance from the house or patio.

Our favourite is definitely the Dovecoat nest box. The distressed effect gives such a classic look and fits right in with the garden.

So why not head over to our Garden range for some great ideas to update and decorate your outdoor space?

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