Get your garden ready - summer is here!
With the sun finally making regular appearances over the UK sky it's time to get ready to embrace the outdoors, and start spending more time in the garden - all to build up a useful supply of Vitamin D of course! Here at Seasons in Colour we are ready to share our favourite tips to get your backyard ready for the summer, in no time and without breaking the bank.
This post is in collaboration with RONSEAL, a brand we often use around the garden for many years.
Clean up your act
We mean the deck! The Patio!
The continuous rain will have built up a layer of green algae on your patio and decking so this is the best time to get the pressure washer out and really give those slabs and deck a good wash. Use an all-round patio cleaner to remove the algae, leave it overnight for best results.
We use a specialist deck cleaner for the wood like the High Performance Decking and Garden Cleaner (Ronseal) which dissolves in water in just 90 seconds and is suitable for bare and treated surfaces including decking, patios and garden furniture. There is no need to scrub (although some spots might need a little help). The good thing is that it also opens up the wood so oils and stains can stick better.
It is absolutely crucial that you clean your patio and decking before purchasing any new furniture. The cleaning process is quite messy and if your garden size is small, moving the furniture around while cleaning is not going to be ideal.
Give your garden a holistic 'spring clean': any broken pots, rusty garden tools or other accessories need to go now. Do not hoard.
Where possible, donate old furniture and accessories you no longer want to you local charity shop and recycle the rest.
Your Hero Product: High Performance Decking and Garden Cleaner
So the deck is clean. Time to treat it
So now you have cleaned your deck. But does it look grey? Well you won't need to replace it but you will need to give it some TLC. Weathering can have a dramatic effect on your decking, making bright and clean surfaces become murky and worn.Some decking needs more than just a cleaner to do this, so you may want to consider a Decking Restorer to brighten a grey deck bringing it back to its former glory.
Gladly, this is a step I bypass every year as our decked areas are stained or painted annually. We also stick to the same paint colour (we don't just stain the deck), which for us is English Oak (using Decking Rescue Paint). It resists foot traffic and weathering and is rainproof in just 90 minutes.
Hero products
Don't forget the shed
Even if you don't have grand plans for the inside of the shed (some need to be just functional, whereas others can be a bit of both - have you seen my glam SHE SHED ?) you should still give it a good lick of paint on the outside, to make sure it looks great - at least with the doors closed (cue a cry-laughing emoji!).
This year I tried a change in colour - from sage green to charcoal grey, also by RONSEAL. The shed had been painted last in 2014 I believe so the paint has lasted well but it was peeling off in many places so I tried the Shed Paint which comes in no less than 24 colours.
Most importantly, it is rainproof within one hour (which came in handy as it did start raining between coats!!).
I loved that with just two coats it looked immediately so much better and also shiny, which I preferred to the previous matt look. One word of caution though, as I tried some wood filler and the paint did not adhere well to it - A third coat may be in order in some places, but this being our back shed, I am not that bothered!
Still more to do
While I would love to sit around and just enjoy the garden, I feel there is still plenty to do around here. So I bought some Garden Paint in a green colour way (Willow) to paint the main shed and I also want to repaint the sun loungers and a picnic table. Check again soon for the updates and styling ideas around the garden! And follow my Stories on Instagram too for even more live inspiration!
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