Garden Ideas for Summer 2024: Upgrade Your Outdoor Space

Summer is a time to relish in the outdoors. For those long summer days and warm evenings, you’ll want to ensure your garden not just survives, but thrives. Protect the garden, and enjoy the fruit of your labour creating a functional space to enjoy and entertain in as well as a growing space to invest in the value of your home. JG King builds with gardens in mind. We know how central they are to the modern home.

Take the time leading up to summer to assess your outdoor space and prepare your summer garden for the season. With this kind of knowledge, you'll be able to create the garden you've always wanted. Whatever it may be, let us be your guide. We'll offer some garden ideas for summer to bring your outdoor areas to life.

Create distinct outdoor entertaining areas

Creating purposeful areas in your garden creates an extension of your home. Organise your garden with outdoor furniture and mindful orientation.

Practically, there are many ways you can create separate zones or ‘rooms’ throughout your garden. Using trellises creates a distinctive divide for a more intimate backyard atmosphere as well as adds visual appeal to your outdoor space.

You can even add colourful flowering vines or blooming shrubs that will create a beautiful focal point for your space. Other methods to create distinct areas include the use of a ready-grown hedge or plants that create boundaries from one area to the other.

Seating zones and alfresco areas

What is a summer garden without a space to relax and soak up the sunshine? A well-thought-out seating area should consider the sun's position and shade. After that, simply set up a table chair for alfresco dining, or simply a cosy nook to curl up with a book.

Vegetable patch or herb garden

A dedicated vegetable patch is not only a great visual addition to any garden, it allows you to take pride in knowing that your veg has come from your hard work and diligence. Consider chillies, beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils and other legumes, which are easy, low-maintenance vegetables to get you started.

As you sow your seeds in your vegetable garden, ensure you are using fertile soil — this will allow your patch to flourish with a bright array of colours and bring vibrancy to your space when summer comes around.

Add a BBQ corner or bar

Where summer entertainment is concerned, a dedicated BBQ corner or cocktail bar is a real crowd-pleaser. There are many designs and configurations to consider depending on how you want it to fit into your garden. Perhaps you have an entire patio to dedicate to this alfresco cooking space or a smaller area where a portable BBQ may suffice. Whatever you choose, a cooking corner or cocktail station will add function and character.

Plant evergreens

Evergreens are essential in any summer garden. These plants and shrubs can retain their foliage throughout the year, keeping your garden looking bright and fresh. Plants to consider include Camellia, Lavender, California lilacs and Photinia. Evergreens will also be at their brightest and most visually appealing during the summer months.

Create a focal point

Whether your garden is large or small, creating a focal point that directs the eye is a smart way to instil your garden with a sense of character, personality and dimension, as well as set the starting point for the theme that seamlessly flows throughout. This could be achieved by something as simple as giving your garden shed a new lick of paint, or by installing a sculpture or water feature. Garden planters featuring vibrant flowers or strikingly shaped plants are also a great way to add height and depth to your garden and even help to separate distinct areas.

Prepare your soil

Spring is the perfect time to enrich your garden’s soil and check if it is lacking in any nutrients that will be needed to help your plants and flowers bloom in all their glory. To help, you can purchase a soil test kit that will analyse your soil and let you know what it may be missing.

Removing weeds

Common weeds steal nutrients and water from the soil so that other plants and flowers go without. Starting early with some general maintenance will make weeding easier as the season progresses and give your other flowers and plants the chance to thrive.

Apply mulch

Applying a layer of mulch to your soil once it has been thoroughly watered will help it retain this moisture and suppress and block weeds in the summer months. To enrich your soil, you’ll want to use organic mulch such as bark, grass clippings, straw etc. This mulch provides a blanket to improve the soil’s structure, drainage capabilities and capacity to retain nutrients, allowing any flowers or plants to bloom to their full potential. Ensure you don’t place mulch on the stems of any plants, as this can cause rot.

Invite wildlife in

Want more visits from Australian wildlife? A simple addition to your outdoor space like a bird feeder or a bird bath can easily be picked up from your local DIY store, but there are other options you can consider.

Bird feeders

Encourage a variety of birds in your garden by installing bird feeders. Perhaps you’ll choose a simple nesting box or window box, or go further and provide an all-rounder of food, water, bathing and shade. Foodstuffs to consider using include suet, seeds and fruits such as apples, bananas and oranges. These often attract a variety of birds. Just watch birdlife find its way into your garden.

Wildflowers

Turn your backyard into a wildflower sanctuary and bring out true Australiana. Whilst a landscaped garden is to many the ideal summer setting, you may choose to let the grass, plants and flowers grow. Uncut grass and wild grasses will let nature thrive. In particular, butterflies and bees are drawn to these wild, overgrown areas.

Use the months leading up to summer as a pivotal time to transform your outside space into your ideal summer garden. Whether you want to keep it simple with pruning and well-placed plants, or add distinctive areas such as an outdoor BBQ or seating zone, create a space to unwind, entertain and connect with nature.