Summer may still feel like it is more than a few months away but in reality, it will be here before we know it. Now is a great time to start thinking about changes you can make to your outdoor spaces or garden in order to get the most enjoyment out of them. The days will be longer and warmer in a couple of months' time!
When your garden, patio, deck, driveway and other outdoor areas are looking their best and furnished with nice places to relax, you can really make the most of good weather to entertain, play games, read or just unwind outside. By setting time aside for outside projects now, will allow you to enjoy the warm evenings in the spring and summer months in your outdoor space later.
When the weather is beautiful, and the nights are warm, you shouldn't have to stop what you are doing to move indoors just because the sun has gone down! Consider equipping your patio, deck, balcony, lawn and front yard with outdoor lighting features to beautify your outdoor space and help ensure safety.
The best choice that you can make when you want to set up outdoor illumination for your summer outdoor entertainment needs is to use LED lighting. Outdoor LED lighting is extremely energy efficient and the bulbs last for far longer than traditional lights, so you won't need to worry about maintenance, even if you want to install lights in hard to reach areas.
LED lighting gives consumers more choices with colors, brightness levels, shapes, and hues. Whether you want some charming colored fairy lights on your deck for your summer parties, or you want some powerful floodlights to play games out on your lawn in the evening, there are plenty of LED lighting options to choose from for your needs.
For safety measures, consider lighting up your driveway or pathways leading to your home. This will help eliminate falls for people of all ages and add extra home security. Not to mention, placing extra lighting in pathways will help walkways look more attractive at night. If you invite family or friends over, this will also help make your property stand out!
Take a look at the VOLT landscape path lighting for some ideas about how you can make your paths look absolutely stunning using LED lights. This will ensure your outdoor space is ready for summer for years to come!
Do you like the idea of having some ornamental trees in your garden, but have a smaller outdoor space such as a patio, balcony, or deck where you can't plant? Consider purchasing potted trees or flowers as they can be a great alternative to increase the green in your outdoor space.
For potted trees, you can choose from a wide range of different types of trees for this purpose, depending on the look you want to achieve. These include evergreen conifers, which will continue to give you the same green look all year round, to beautiful fruit trees or ornamental trees like Japanese acers. As long as you place your potted trees in a place where they will receive the right amount of sunlight, they will have no problem being kept in suitably sized pots. Potted plants will give you the same great look (plus yields of fruit or flowers if you chose flowering trees) as if you planted them in the ground.
Another way you can give your outdoor spaces a balmy look and make it a more enjoyable place to spend time this summer is to add some colors in the form of flowering plants. This can also give your garden a lovely fragrance when the flowers are in bloom in the spring!
If you do not want to have to plants and maintain flower beds in your garden or if you have limited outdoor spaces to plant in-ground, you can still add some gorgeous flowers by using window boxes, planters, troughs, containers, and hanging baskets. These are ideal for summery annual plants and bulbs. This is something you can easily create yourself during an afternoon or on the weekend. Buy some individual potted plants you like the look of and arrange them in compost in your chosen design of window box or another container. Alternatively, if you prefer a wild or natural look, grow the flowering plants from seeds and see how your hanging basket or container garden grows!
Herbs can be a great addition to your garden in summer for three reasons. Firstly, you can use them for recipes or drinks. Put your own home-grown fresh mint in your mojitos in your poolside drinks or share this tip at you summer gatherings! Also consider mixing your own basil into your fresh salads. Secondly, it looks great and adds more greenery to your garden while also providing some nice texture, especially if you mix different looks such as green, leafy plants like basil with more shrub-like herbs such as rosemary. Thirdly, they smell amazing, and will add a delightful fragrance to the air on nice summer evenings you spend outdoors.
Herbs are incredibly easy to grow and don't require much space, so this is another way you can use containers if you don't have much space to actually plant things in outdoors or in your garden. You can also buy herbs in pots at a low cost and even at the supermarket, where they can happily grow, if you aren't able to make it to a plant nursery to buy the plants to create your outdoor space.
If you would like to see more wildlife in your garden, then a good way to achieve it can be simply by adding a bird feeder in a safe spot in your garden area (out of reach of any pets, especially cats!). Depending on the type of birds there are where you live, you may want to consider a hummingbird feeder that uses a kind of nectar to attract these beautiful, colorful birds. Encouraging birds into your garden will help you welcome interesting creatures to watch when you are relaxing outside. Birds can also provide you with a natural afternoon tune while you unwind outdoors.
As you can see, there are lots of easy changes you can make in a day or so that will make your garden look better and be a more enjoyable space to use this summer. So why not start preparing it now, to get the most out of every sunny day that comes along!