Making the most of our garden

We are very lucky to have a nice big garden, and I'm often aware that we don't make as much of it as we should. It's fairly low maintenance, mainly grass with a couple of small patio areas, and we have a lovely vegetable patch with a raised bed. We also have a little summer house which is great for storing toys and easy for the children to access. Being on a new build estate it is a bit overlooked, although not from our immediate neighbours, so that sometimes makes me feel a bit self-conscious when I'm out there.

Now that the children are that bit older and can generally be left to their own devices either inside or outside the house I'm determined to make the most of our outdoor space. I'm not much of a gardener and we don't have huge amounts of money to invest in anything fancy, so it's more about making the most of what we already have.

A couple of years back we bought some outdoor furniture which was a really worthwhile purchase. It wasn't expensive, it's just a small sofa and two seats made of plastic rattan with cushions and a small table for the middle. It's really comfy though and it's so nice to have it out there ready to use. We also bought a couple of sun loungers although I'm not really one for lying about in the sun - the children tend to use them as ramps for their cars and trucks!

I think because the weather this year has been so lovely it's really motivated me to make the effort to spend more time in the garden. I work from home and so I've been trying to make the effort to sit outside for just a little bit every day when it's not raining. Whether that's to enjoy a morning cup of tea or hot chocolate or to catch up with some of my social media channels. Even if I feel that I have to justify to my unseen-yet-potentially-observing neighbours that I am "working" not just faffing about on my phone!

We already enjoy lots of barbecues in the summer. We are vegetarian but we are gradually increasing our repertoire - we still include the veggie burgers and sausages but have upped our intake of halloumi and have been experimenting with different ingredients to fill wraps and pittas. We've also discovered toasted marshmallows served on chocolate digestive biscuits - I think I'm indulging more food-wise than I do over Christmas!

A post shared by jenniferjain (@jenniferjain) on Jun 3, 2018 at 9:43am PDT

The children like eating outside too and when they have finished we let them get down and play. I prefer them to be outside in the early evening when it's not so hot and they can burn off some energy before bed.

I'm really hoping that this lovely weather lasts through the summer, especially into the school holidays as it makes it much easier for me to entertain the children during the day and I don't have to worry so much about bedtime if we want to enjoy some late sunshine!