As we are getting closer and closer to the summer, things are warming up and the evenings are starting to get nice and long. It’s time to start thinking ahead to how you’re going to make the most of those few months of sun.
It would be nice to have a pleasant environment to get some fresh air and sunlight without having to stray too far from our homes, but most of us don’t really have that. We’ve all got backyards, but very few of us pay attention to them.
The majority of backyards aren’t really anything special. Just a patch of grass with maybe the odd flower sprouting somewhere. Most of our backyards are probably just glorified storage areas.
Is your backyard like that? Well to me that feels like an opportunity. An opportunity for you to not only turn a part of your home into a little oasis of summer paradise but also exercise your creativity with some DIY.
Doesn’t have to be a massive job or anything, but that sure sounds like a nice way to spend some of these Spring weekends right? Let’s take a look at a few ways you can turn your backyard into a magical garden:
Make Your Own Garden Furniture
If you want to be able to enjoy the comfort of your new summer garden, you are going to need some furniture out there. At the very least, some seating for yourself and your friends and family, and a table if you want to drink drinks or snacks out.
And you could always buy some fancy garden furniture of course, but not only will that be more expensive and less fun, but it will also mean that your furniture isn’t personalized. And you won’t have had the satisfaction of making it yourself.
Starting you off with something nice and easy, you could make a two-seater bench with literally just six pieces of wood and have the project finished in a single day. A functional piece of furniture that you can do no matter what your experience level with woodworking.
There are many different kinds of chairs besides that if you want to challenge yourself a little bit more. You could make some folding chairs, you could make a loveseat or you could make a couple of longer benches if you expect some larger parties.
As for tables, this will depend on your personal preference and how big of a table you think you need. So you could just make a simple round wooden table or you could opt for a bit of experimentation.
You could work on a table that has a hole in the center that accommodates a parasol. When it’s especially bright out this would be a huge benefit.
Or you could build a wooden table with an in-built fire pit.
His would be a metal bowl fixed into the wood which you can then fill with charcoal, light it up, and then you can gather around the fire with some friends.
Get Creative With Lighting
One of the best things to do in your garden during the summer is relaxing out there in the evenings. This is when it’s still warm and pleasant but not uncomfortably so, and the sun won’t be too bright to handle.
The disadvantage of it is that it will be dark, and so that’s why you need to install some lighting. Like your furniture, this is something else that you can get pretty creative with. A unique way to light up your garden would be through fairy lights.
Wrap some of these around every available tree and if you’ve got a decking with pillars wrap it around those too. It will light the place up and it will also make you feel like you’re living in a fairy tale.
Here’s another option: Have you got any empty mason jars lying around? Well, you can repurpose them as lights in so many different ways. Placing candles or battery-powered bulbs inside, you can craft hooks out of wire hangers and position them around the garden or attach them to a length of rope and thread them around a tree.
As you can see, I’m an advocate for using trees as makeshift lighting fixtures. They’re very useful for that purpose if you have a few in your backyard.
Take up Gardening
This one might not seem like DIY in the traditional sense, but it kind of is. You’re not really using wood unless you’re building flower beds and planters but you are doing the same kind of preparation and hard work involved in DIY.
No garden is complete without plants and flowers and this is where you can really enhance the color and vibrancy of your space. There are so many different kinds of plants for you to choose from.
You can just go for whatever flowers you think will look nice, or you can go for ones which serve more purposes than that. You could use this as an opportunity to start growing some of your own fruit or vegetables.
Things like tomato plants and strawberry plants grow fast, they look nice and they produce tasty fruit. You should draw yourself up a diagram of how you want your flowers to be positioned through the garden so that it looks like something that’s been designed creatively instead of just plants are grown at random throughout the yard.
And also, if you want to have plants there are certain maintenance issues to remember, one of which is the fact that they may attract pests which could ruin their aesthetic appeal.
Keep an eye on this and call in pest control at the first sign of a potential infestation.
Dig a Pond
Some kind of water feature will add a lot to the garden. What would be really nice would be a pond and then a little build-up rock feature which allows for a waterfall.
The sound of running water is extremely relaxing so it would make your garden even more peaceful.
There are a lot of ways you could put this waterfall feature together, and it will be a challenging but rewarding job. You can build some which involve specific pumps and water dispensers and others that are achieved with carefully placed rocks.
And then if you want you could add a bit more to your pond by introducing some fish. Koi are always a good choice, they’re easy to take care of and they live for a very long time too.
Do all of these or even just a couple of them, and instead of a backyard, you’ll have yourself a relaxing little slice of nature. This summer, it still better for us to play it a little safe and not stray too far from home, and that will be fine if you’ve got summer at home anyway.
