Garden furniture tips
What’s coming up in the garden this week with Louisa Bell of City and Country Gardens
Design and construction
Dressing your outside room
The most important spot in your garden is the place where you sit. Even if your garden is small, you can create a dining table and chairs and another space elsewhere to just sit and relax.
Garden furniture still needs to come a long way to match the scale and scope of choice that we have indoors. It’s very easy to create a ‘look’ in the garden with very little in the way of additional staging. A few cushions, some pots arranged on the table, pretty crockery. You’ll soon have it looking like the cover of Country Living magazine.
Keep the dining furniture on a hard landscaped area. You can’t keep moving tables and chairs every time you cut the grass. It’s not so important with sun loungers – especially if they’ve got wheels. If your garden is completely paved, we like to build a little overhead structure, or enclose you in some way, to make it feel like a separate area of the garden. This need not be a heavy or fenced in area. Even some square picture frames around you can make all the difference. If you have a hot and sunny garden, it’s nice to grow scented climbers to provide shade and a heavenly place to sit.
In the garden you may want to face towards the sun, or sit and look at the best planted area you have. Choose the nicest part of the garden to sit. When I visit new clients, I always walk around the garden first and wonder where I’d like to sit, if it was my new house.
Your furniture should have some connection to your house furniture too. If your sofas are all cream with big brown cushions, then use the same colours and fabrics outside.
Wooden furniture is made from a variety of hardwoods. The garden centres are getting all their new furniture in for the summer now. The budget end is made from Keruing and Eucalyptus. The more expensive stuff is made from Iroko. It’s not necessary to treat the wood. It will change the colour of the wood. You can treat the wood with Linseed or Danish Oil but it’s quite nasty stuff so do be careful. Most companies supply their own treatment. Alexander Rose supplies a water based treatment, and this soaks straight into the wood. Rub it in with a soft cloth. If you don’t treat wooden furniture, then it quite quickly fades to an old oak colour; that kind of silvery grey.
Make your garden look inviting. Lay the table outside, as you would inside. Don’t just throw a bunch of knives and forks in the middle, and please don’t use plastic plates or glasses. Use the real thing. Light candles. Take out cushions. Put throws over the backs of the chairs so that when it’s colder later in the evening, you can snuggle up together after dinner. It’s so much better than being inside. Where else could you look up after dinner and see the stars…
Love your garden. We do. For a free chat in your garden, about your garden, call us on 01273 202115.
Plants
Not so tasty treats
There are many poisonous plants around and you should be aware of them if you have children or pets. If you are designing and planting a garden yourself, check with a nursery if you are unsure about any berried shrubs or plants.
If you have a Laburnum tree in the garden, then please be aware that this tree can be fatal. The small brown seed pods are the most dangerous part of the tree and children should never touch them. Better still, cut the thing down. Symptoms of poisoning by Laburnum root or seeds are intense sleepiness, vomiting, convulsive movements, coma, slight frothing at the mouth and unequally dilated pupils. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Even delphiniums and hellbores are poisonous. Of course, the garden is a dangerous place and if you have sensible children, they will know not to eat or touch plants. It’s just difficult when so many brightly coloured berries look like something we’re allowed to eat indoors.
Things to do
Visit Gardens!
All the gardens start opening now for the year ahead. The National Trust with their round of Head Gardener tours, fling open its’ gates to us garden lovers. I try and go somewhere every week as it’s so inspirational. You can buy the Yellow Book now too. This is the publication of the NGS and it’s filled with brave souls who open their gardens to the public to raise money to charity. These are the things that make Britain great.
You can visit small gardens, a whole street of gardens, large gardens or a normal household where the owners have been up since 5am making it all perfect. Some serve seriously good teas too; homemade cakes and Twinings in unmatched cups and saucers, borrowed from the neighbours for the event. Buy the book for Sussex and visit a garden near you to see what grows on your soil and get great ideas for your own little bit of England.
