Lifestyle: Making the most of your garden

Picture this, you've spent months trawling Rightmove and visiting place after place. After weeks of house hunting you're finally settled - you're going for an old (probably Victorian) terrace. So now you've got an idea of what you want, you're fantasising about your incredible, original wooden floors and high ceilings. And what next? You face the yard situation and how to make the most of it. Having spent the last few weeks figuring it out myself, I thought why not share a few tips!

1. Explore your options with decking
Terrace houses aren't known for their spacious walled gardens. Nope they're usually a pretty sad little concrete spaces surrounded by brick. Cool if you're going for serious industrial chic. But not for anyone with sad little dreams of a flower filled gardens in their secret heart (ok, yes, I am one of those). That is until we discovered our little home and all it's decked glory. Gone was the little rectangle of cold, grey concrete in favour of something way more welcoming... and befitting a summer of BBQs and al fresco dining, (weather permitting of course). And it seriously made such a difference to the whole homeliness of the place. Honestly, I'm such a convert I'm now trying to convince Helen her place need a little decking!

2. Create your own little potted plant garden
I'd already started playing around with the idea of a balcony garden with a few pots here and there at my old place. And since moving into the new one, we've been steadily doing our bit to add a little more green to the place. A good start is to first figure out what the sunniest parts of your garden are, before you start planning what to add. Once you've got an idea of how much sun or shade your little plant babies are going to get, it's much easier to figure out which ones will be right for your place. Mismatched or matching pots are always cute - we decided to opt for a mix of terracotta pots in different shapes and sizes.

3. Add a little outdoor lighting
This is one I've already gone on about in another post (you can read it here if you haven't already) but nothing adds a little something to your outdoor space like lighting. Whether it's copper wire or festoon lighting, they instantly open up a space and help it feel more personal. Whether they're strung along a fence, around the borders of your garden or entwined around plants, there's plenty of ways to get creative with your lighting. It's not expensive and it's pretty quick to stick up without having to make too much effort! Plus it's not just great for summer - once the dark nights are back, there's nothing like a little outdoor sparkle.