Spending more time in your garden is a great way to get some family time in. It’s also proven that spending more time outside can have a positive effect on your mental health too. Let’s just hope we get a decent summer for you to spend time outdoors.

Discover the joy of gardening

Gardening is great fun and comes with a range of physical and mental benefits. The act of planting and maintaining a lush and healthy garden gets you up and outside drinking fresh lungs full of clean air.

Becoming a gardener also means you get a good, non-strenuous workout each week, it’s a great way to meet and interact with people – both online and in local community gardening groups.

Don’t be put off by thinking that your garden is too small or in the wrong shape. As long as you have enough space for a plant pot or a window box then you can join in the ranks of green-fingered Britons.

Top tips for spending more time in the garden this year

Make a garden calendar

Have you received a truly awful One Direction or Gogglebox calendar for Christmas? Why not turn it into something positive in the New Year?

Keeping track of what you plant and when you need to tend to them can be tricky but thankfully there are hundreds and thousands of great resources online that tell you what to plant, where and when.

Plan your calendar out as soon as you start planting so you have lots of little work to do throughout the year. Your garden should ‘peak’ around summertime so that you can make the most of it.

Choose some funky plants (but not too funky)

Before you finish your garden calendar you’ll need to choose what you are going to plant. To keep your garden interesting you can fill it with lots of vibrant and colourful flowers that aren’t usually seen in other British gardens. Be warned though, because these plants are usually more difficult to grow than their classic counterparts.

The trick is to find a balance between what’s attractive and interesting and what is easy to do. Too much towards either extreme and you risk losing interest in your gardening. This brings us nicely to our next tip.

Spend more time in the garden but less time gardening

This is probably the most important advice if you are going to keep up your gardening all year long. Gardening is nice, but you have to remember to put time aside to enjoy the fruits of your labour as well.

When you are drafting your garden calendar be sure to include plans for a couple of barbeques and outdoor events to help you show off your fancy garden to your nearest and dearest.

Ditch the lawn

Mowing a natural grass lawn is one of the longest and most tedious of gardening tasks. There’s not much to it apart from pushing a lump of machinery before you while shielding your ears from the noise.

We are slightly biased in favour of artificial grass, but it solves many common garden problems. Installing artificial turf will also free up some extra time to work on the more enjoyable aspects of gardening.

Get in touch today to plan your new lawn. We even do railway sleeper planters too. Creating an area for you to grow all your amazing plants and vegetables. For more on gardening, you can take a look at our gardening tips blog.