Garden Days

I love this time of the year when the garden springs to life after a long winter. The nights are getting lighter, it's warm enough to enjoy drinks outside on the patio and the doors can be left wide open!

Feels lovely to be outside again!

As you know from my previous post, I did not have much of a garden last year so it was lovely to see buds appearing on the trees and new shoots growing on shrubs.

I could not wait to get started sowing seeds in the greenhouse.  I would like more colour in the flower beds so I decided to grow a variety of flowers as well as salad and vegetables.

Isn't is lovely to see the greenhouse being used again after the winter?

This year, I treated myself to a potting bench! I have wanted one for a while now and thought it would be ever so useful. I was right! It has handy hooks on one side, which is perfect for keeping my gardening tools organised. No more excuses for loosing my dibber and plant labels!

My potting bench. My lovely friend Rachael from Sew, Ray, Me sent me these little seed packets that she made. How cute are they?!

I found the little cream watering can in a local antique shop a few years ago. Its perfect for giving seeds a drop of water when they have just been planted. The flower pot, seed tin, paper pot maker and fork were from Sainsurys. I just love the garden accessories they have on sale at the moment, 

I've been busy planting up some pots for the patio too. My husband and I both enjoy relaxing with a drink on the patio in the warmer evenings in front of the log burner. 

I would love to hear about what you are growing in the garden this year. Isn't it exciting when seedlings begin to germinate?! Hopefully we shall have some nice warm weather to help everything grow. 

The Summerhouse

I am not actually sure what to call this little room that joins onto our home. It was built with the property in the 1960's and I guess you could say it was an early type of conservatory made from wood. It reminds me of the summer houses you can get for the garden so that's what I'm calling it!

Words can not describe it!!

Basically it has 3 sides and a roof and was built over the kitchen window and back door. When we first moved in, the walls were damp, roof leaking and the carpet was filthy, thread bare and musty. 

Whilst my husband carried out other jobs, this room became my project and I decided to paint the walls white to make it lighter. I spent ages painting it, ripped up the carpet and put a tile effect floor down. The finished result? Hmmm. It looked nice for about a day! The damp was causing mould to grow. I was horrified. The glass windows were soaking wet every day. I was using my karcher window vac every half an hour! 

The damp was horrifying!

So, I spent many hours on the internet trying to find a solution. I read that vents could be installed to help with condensation and that the walls could be insulated and then covered with plaster board. 

So after much research, my husband re felted the roof and I sprayed dettol onto the wooden walls. Once it had dried out and the mould had disappeared before my eyes I began to paint it cream. I used Cuprinol garden shades in Country Cream. I used this paint on the wooden garden benches last year in the shade Willow and it's fantastic. Lovely to paint with and looks like it was painted yesterday. It's weatherproof for 4 years. I painted the outside of the building in Willow.

Already starting to look much better!

Once the walls were painted cream, I bought voiles in Ivory for the windows and made a window seat using two wooden blanket boxes. I thought that they would be useful for storing wellies in. I added seat pads and cushions to complete the look.

The voiles help to create a softened look and the wooden boxes that make the window seat are useful for storage

Finally, I found an off cut of a wooden effect floor which has finished it off lovely. I solved the wet window problem by using a dehumidifier! It's amazing how much water it collects over night. I love this little room now. It's so bright and clean and such a transformation!

Cushions, baskets and vases help to create a country feel

New wooden effect floor to complete the look

 
 Storage boxes make an ideal window seat 

I really can not get over the transformation! I love sitting on the window seat with a cup of tea looking out into the garden. When the weather is nice and warm I can have the doors wide open but it is also lovely to hear the sound of the rain beating down on the roof. Especially now as since the roof has been refelted it is actually waterproof! 

Dreaming of a Garden

I love a pretty garden so I was quite disappointed to discover that we only had slabs. Not one flower bed to plant flowers, no lawn for my dog, no trees, plants or shrubs, nothing! As soon as the weather began to warm up I set about creating a garden.

The garden was such a mess!

My husband, at my insistence started by lifting up slabs where I wanted a lawn to be. I debated whether to sow grass seed or buy turf and in the end I went with the latter. I knew it would be impossible to keep my dog off the patch whilst waiting for the seed to grow and didn't much fancy muddy paw prints in the house. Instead I ordered rolls of turfs and before I knew it the day arrived to lay our lawn! 

Once the lawn had been created we started work on the flower beds. We had to lift up chippings and then a black liner before digging over the soil. Lots of weeds too! Along the garage wall, mounds of soil had been placed against it. Well above the damp course. It took ages to remove it all before we used left over slabs to cover it up. 

The rubbish by the garage wall!

I'm so pleased with the transformation and the garden is well on its way to becoming established. Dog loves the lawn and spends ages lying on it. Trouble is, he also likes to dig parts of it up! Oops. Nothing that a bit of grass seed can't fix.

Filling the House with Flowers

Don't you just love flowers?! I do enjoy filling my home full of them in pretty jugs, jars and vases.

I enjoy picking little posies from the garden too!

Flowers can brighten up any space, especially during those winter months when it's so cold outside and all you want to do is sit in front of the fire and light lots of candles!