garden Archives - ET Speaks From Home

Things are heating up in the garden

I don’t know about you, but in this part of the world, summer has been amazing. The weather has seen the family spend a lot of the day in the garden having fun and not a tablet or phone screen in sight most of the time.

If you remember the post from a little while back on adding colour to the garden (which you can read here), you’ll know that taking time out to spruce up the garden and carrying out little DIY projects work wonders. It can change the garden from a neglected space to one the family can spend all day and night in when the weather is as fantastic as it’s been.

Things to Research Before Hiring A Gardener

Not everyone is naturally green fingered, especially people like me. I am a real amateur and can provide little help when it comes to gardening. Some things might look simple but it often requires someone with a bit of knowledge or know-how to do it well.

Little Additions That Would Improve Any Home

Little Additions That Would Improve Any Home.

I think it’s safe to say that we all love our homes – even if at first it takes a little breaking in period to get to grips with everything. Pretty much everything about our abodes is perfect or will become perfect for us in our eyes. We have everything organised and in its place just as we like.

That said, it’s completely natural for us to want to have extra things added or minor improvements to be made. They say variety is the spice of life and it’s true. Whether it’s to the inside or the outside, there are lots that can be done to give your home a little makeover. Let’s have a look at some ideas.

Choosing The Right Artificial Turf

Busy families are rapidly cottoning on to the fact that fake grass is one of the easiest ways to make their gardens low maintenance and family friendly.

But with so much on offer out there, and such variation, how on earth do you even begin to pick the right one for you?

Peter Rabbit Movie

Last Saturday, we were celebrating Beatrix Potter’s birthday and the release of the Peter Rabbit movie on Digital, DVD and Blu-ray, which is available to buy now in good retailers, supermarkets and online! We have received this cute exclusive party pack from Sony Pictures, which contains the baskets filled with soft toys, seeds, garden fork, popcorn and DVD to watch at home.

Sloane & Sons Outdoor Cushions Review

Outdoor cushions are a great way to add a splash of colour to your garden furniture as well as being functional by providing great levels of comfort. This spring, we are furnished with these stunning bright red Sloane & Sons outdoor cushions.

Sloane & Sons was founded by Gerry Sloane in 1989, and a local business based in Burton on Trent. They began by manufacturing cushions and soft furnishings and has now been manufacturing and supplying essential products for the home and garden for over 25 years. This was the first time I had heard about them and I’m very pleased to know that they are so local to me. It’s also good to know that they still make and produce all of their outdoor scatter cushions and garden bench cushions here in England.

Get on with it Challenge with Ronseal

Recently, Ronseal set us a ‘Get on with it Challenge’ to encourage us to get the job done before the summer comes! I am so glad that I did it last weekend as we have put it off for almost two years now as the fence panels were looking rather dilapidated!

Keukenhof – Tulips in Holland

Keukenhof is one of the world’s largest flower gardens with more than 7 million bulbs in bloom this spring, with a total of 800 varieties of tulips! It is situated in Holland and is only open for a short period of the year during spring. We were so lucky to coincidentally be in Holland before they close on 21 May 2017.

Add colour to my Garden – Before Transformation

I want to add colour to my garden! I am so pleased to take part in Homebase’s Garden Goals challenge where I need to complete two tasks! First is to write about why I am adding colour to my very dull garden and tell you what I am going to do about it. My second post is to show you the transformation I have made using the Homebase’s Garden Goals instructions.

Mother’s Day Gifts for Garden Lovers

With Mother’s Day approaching quickly, are you struggling to look for gifts to buy for your mother or wife? If you are running out of ideas, I have a few gift ideas under my sleeves that I would like to show you today! I have been looking at Garden Inspired Mother’s Day Gift ideas for ladies who love gardening or love floral items.

Simple Guide to Composting

As spring is here, now it is an ideal time to make sure your garden is in good shape. This is especially true if you are looking to grow fruit and vegetables, re-invigorate your flowerbeds with new plants or help your new bulbs and seeds get the best start in life.

Recently, we had to dig up many dead lavender plants that perhaps should have been dug up last year. While we decide on what plants to replace them with, we are going to give the flowerbed some new compost to ensure the new plants have a good heathy start.

Adding compost to your garden can give it that extra boost to ensure plants stay heathy and strong, but trying to figure out which is best can be confusing. Ecoscape have designed this simple guide to composting infographic which breaks down what different types of compost there are, what is used to make each different type and what compost should be used for and when. This is a very easy to follow guide.

Self-Watering Planter from Lechuza

My children love planting and they are always very excited when I hand them a bag of seeds. In the past, we have grown peas, sunflowers, strawberries and others. We don’t always get the fruits of our labour though as we keep forgetting to water it. This is worse during the summer as we are often out and about and it’s when the plants need more water.

We recently installed a Karcher Rain Box which is helpful but it is not on a timer so we still have to turn on the tap to water it. So we are delighted to receive this Lechuza self-watering planter!

Interplay Fairy Garden

Do you believe in fairies? Like other young children, both of my children still believe in them and they were so excited to build this fairy garden! Fairy Garden is part of the Craft Box range which is one of the many ranges from Interplay. It is suitable for ages 4 onwards.

The Half & Half-Term Games – Warburtons

As Commonwealth Games fever hits the UK – Warburtons and the Brownlee Brothers have teamed up to launch “The Half & Half-Term Games”. The Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, with over 11 days of competition from 23 July to 3 August 2014.

I can’t believe this May half term has already come and gone! Despite the heavy rain, we made up for lost time playing sports at home and luckily, we’ve had sunshine this last weekend!

Build Your Own Den with pl-ug

In these modern times, we all try hard to give our children the best and of course, provide them with a fun childhood. At times, Mr C will build a den with the kids and have their mini party while I cook lunch/dinner. I am so pleased to come across pl-ug (the den expert) at the recent Toy Fair. Now I won’t need to look for my missing pegs or clips as they have proper kit to help them build a proper canopy den!