The spring season is so-named because it is when the flowers “spring” into life. The word comes from the Old English word “springan”, which had many of the same connotations, referring to things that grow, spread, and burst into life.
Spring is a season of joy and opportunity, the light at the end of a long and miserable winter, and if you have garden furniture and a large outdoor space, it’s also when you can start thinking about spending more time on your patio or lawn.
To ensure your garden looks beautiful and stays clean until the summer, follow the steps below.
Check for Damage
Rain, snow, and cold weather can wreak havoc on your deck and outdoor furniture. Wood cracks, metal rusts, and mold spreads—your first step, therefore, is to give everything a thorough inspection:
- Rusted Furniture: Rust can—and will—accumulate on metal chairs and table legs if they are not properly maintained, but it’s easy to clean. A wire brush and a little elbow grease is all you need. Once you’ve finished scrubbing, you can clean everything using warm soapy water.
- Check Umbrellas, Awnings, and Canopies: Have you left the awning out during the winter? Did you use the umbrella toward the end of the fall and then forget about it because you were too drunk and it was too cold? We’ve all done it, and if the umbrella has been bracing against the cold wind and rain for several months it will need to be removed, cleaned, and replaced. Look for rust and mold, scrub everything down, and check that it’s properly cleaned and dried before replacing it.
- Wooden Decking Issues: Hammer nails that have popped up during the winter and use a sander to remove splinters. If there are any heavily cracked or severely splintered areas, you’ll need to think about a proper repair, but most of the work can be done with a sander, hammer, and some filler. Once everything has been repaired, give it a once-over with a pressure washer and finish by treating the wood to prepare for the year ahead.
- Stone Patio Issues: If you have a patio made of stone and/or brick, you can fix crumbling areas and cracks using a trowel and whatever patching compound is recommended for that particular material. The pressure washer will also come in handy here—even if it looks clean, it will likely be coated in a layer of dirt and a quick blast will make it look brand new.
- Clean and Treat Furniture: Whether your furniture is made of wood, plastic, or high-quality poly lumber (as with all the furniture sold here at Seven Summers), you should clean it before spring begins. Soapy water and a sponge are all that you need, as you just need to remove the dirt and detritus that has built up over summer. If your furniture is made of wood, you may need to treat it.
- Clean Fabrics: Fabrics absorb water and attract dirt and dust. They’ll dry out once the rain stops and the sun appears, but they’ll still be filthy and need a good clean. Check the care instructions on your fabrics—most come with covers that can be removed and placed in the washing machine, others need specific care.
Create Multiple Areas
You’re enjoying drinks with your best friend on Monday, hosting a children’s birthday party on Tuesday, staging a dinner party on Wednesday, and playing with your kids on Thursday—all these things will take place in your garden, but where?
If the answer is “all on the patio” or “all on the lawn”, then it’s time to create some separate spaces.
You don’t want to be enjoying an afternoon meal in the same place that your kids are playing catch, just as you shouldn’t host a dinner party in the same area that your dog uses to defecate. It makes for a nasty mental image but imagine what your guests will think when Rex has a bowel movement while they’re tucking into dessert.
Creating separate spaces doesn’t mean using dividing walls and partitioning your dining furniture from your bar and your bar from the toys. Simply space them out and ensure that they are separate and distinct.
Use Bold Colors
Spring is a season of hope and expectation, a season when everything comes into bloom and the darkness and misery of winter begin to fade away. Complement the season by using bold colors throughout your garden.
Invest in a Hot Tub
Hot tubs are great all year long, whether you need something to warm you up in the fall or want to relax the night away in the summer. But spring is arguably the best time to buy. Not only are hot tubs cheaper than during the height of summer (even more so if you buy toward the end of winter) but you’ll also have more time to enjoy them, with all of spring, summer, and fall stretched out before you.
Hot tubs can be expensive and if you want a high-quality tub with multiple jets and a sturdy structure that will last for decades, you could be looking at over $5,000. But there are much cheaper options, and you can get a very good inflatable hot tub for less than $500.
Coordinate
Cushions, throws, blankets, flowers, planters—every accessory and accent play a part in the overall aesthetic of your outdoor space. The more coordinated these accents are, the better your garden will look overall.
If you don’t have much of an eye for design, just try throwing together some matching spring-themed color schemes, including:
- Purple and Green
- Blue and White
- Chocolate and Cream
- Lime Green and White
- Peach and White
- Green and Fuchsia
- White and Yellow
- Sage Green and Gold
Update Your Furniture
If your furniture is looking tired, old, and dated, you have a couple of options.
The first—and arguably the best—is to renovate the piece by sanding, grinding, painting, and refinishing. If it’s in good condition but looks dated, try adding some cushions and stitching some fabric onto it.
The other option is to throw it away and buy something new. It’s the last resort option, but if you have the budget, it’s well worth considering.
When investing in new garden furniture, look for something that was made for outdoor use and doesn’t require any special care or attention, otherwise, you’ll have the same issue next spring.
All the patio furniture sold at Seven Summers is made from a material known as poly lumber, which comes from recycled milk cartons and detergent bottles. It’s as stylish as wood and as easy-to-clean as plastic.
It doesn’t need to be treated and it won’t rust, fade, split, or crack. High-quality poly lumber pieces—such as the fresh springtime styles of the SeaAria collection—will last for years and never go out of style.
Buy Some Planters
Early spring is the perfect time to start buying planters and decorating your patio. You can usually tell how green-fingered someone is by how many plants they have. Homeowners with little to no gardening experience will opt for herbs over flowers, furniture over flower beds. But planters are perfect even if you have no gardening knowledge whatsoever.
Look for low-maintenance plants that produce colorful blooms. Your local nursery can help you to choose. Be upfront with them, let them know how inexperienced you are, and tell them what you’re looking for. They will be more than happy to lend a helping hand and give you some pointers.
Once you have purchased the planters, you can progress to pots, containers, and then to flower beds. Some of the best flowers for inexperienced gardeners include:
- Creeping Thyme: Gorgeous purple blooms and delicious fragrances combine to create a plant that is both beautiful and edible.
- Coneflower: The coneflower is renowned for its ability to thrive in poor soil. Also known as echinacea, this plant produces beautiful big flowers and is often praised for its medicinal benefits. It’s used in health supplements and is consumed as a tea infusion.
- Meadow Sage: Another purple flower that grows in bunches and produces fresh and fragrant buds.
- Black-Eyed Susan: A resilient plant that blooms with bright yellow and deep black flowers, reminiscent of butterflies and bumblebees.
- Peppermint: Although peppermint is not the first thing you think of when it comes to colorful flowers, it’s very easy to grow and will fill your garden with a fresh minty scent. You can use it to flavor desserts and brew it into a tea.
- Clematis: A rapid-growing plant that works well as a climbing and covering plant, adding some volume to your garden. Clematis has blossoms of varying colors, including violet and white.
Fetch the Fire Pit
Springtime is when fire pits come out of storage and spark some life into backyards throughout the United States. They can be used in winter, of course, but in most climates, even a roaring fire pit isn’t enough to make the winter cold bearable.
If you don’t have a fire pit, now’s the time to invest in one. You can get a good metal fire pit for around $100 at home improvement stores like Home Depot. These fire pits are basic, but they will do the job. Some fire pits in this range also double as grills and all of them can be used to roast marshmallows.
If you’re using a fire pit in a dry climate and on grass, look for one that comes with a mesh screen to keep the embers contained.
The best fire pits are ones that you build yourself. You just need to lay the foundation, build a circular or square pit using bricks and then install a fire ring.
A fire pit is best used as a centerpiece for your outdoor furniture. Place it near the chairs where your guests will be sitting but keep it far enough away so that it doesn’t scorch them or your furniture.