Getting our garden summer ready

At the bottom of our garden we have a pool and every summer we have lots of work to do to get it ready for use during the summer months. Cutting trees, mowing grass, cleaning the patio are just some of the things we have to do and a few weeks ago we decided to get our garden summer ready.

With the four of us we were confident we could get it done quickly. We had assigned the jet washing of the patio to BP. The patio around the pool gets dirty during the autumn and winter months and leaving it would mean the kids would get dirty feet when playing in the pool. So, it had to be cleaned. 


This is just one side of the patio...



The Hubby got started with cutting back the trees and mowing the lawn, anything that required tools to be used. I had the broom to hand and went around sweeping up all the cuttings into a pile so LP could pick them up and put them in our brown bin.



little boy helping with gardening


We spent a couple of hours in the morning cutting, sweeping, and washing and by the time we were ready for a break we were halfway finished. 


I had the job of sweeping and by the time we were done I had a back ache!


In order to get the pool ready for use we needed to make sure the garden was ready first and then move on to the pool. We took the whole weekend to get it all done. 

On Sunday luckily it was still good weather so we headed outside to make a start again. More cutting back trees, more sweeping, and more jet-washing. 

The Hubby had some fun with the jet-wash...




Before I started picking up the cuttings BP and I spotted a tiny snail on the top of the brown bin.



BP thought it would be a good idea to put the glove next to the snail to give you perspective. Clever one BP! 



What a cute little guy huh?


BP picked it up and moved it to the wall before we opened up the bin. 

When BP took over the jet-wash again the Hubby started to clean the pool. To do that we needed the Dolphin - a machine that cleans the bottom and sides of the pool. It gets plugged in and kind of sweeps the bottom of the pool so there's no algae or leaves in there. The cleaning takes about 4 hours and we can leave it to it which is much better than having to brush the sides of the pool ourselves.



The pool doesn't look particularly appealing before it's been cleaned.



Cleaning the pool isn't just about the Dolphin either, we also have to put chemicals in the water to make it safe for use and make sure the boiler is switched on so that it's not freezing cold. The preparation isn't too bad but there's also weekly maintenance that will have to be done. Luckily the Hubby takes care of all that.



The dolphin doing its job



Once the pool is cleaned and the water has been cleaned we have a filter and a boiler to turn on. The filter makes sure the water stays clean and the boiler heats the water (obvs!). We heat the water to about 28 degrees so it's not cold and when the sun is out we can use it.



The pool after the dolphin has done its job one time. More times required. 




Having a pool makes staying at home more fun, especially when the sun is out. We have the occasional barbecue and love to spend time outside. 

The best bit about getting the garden summer ready though is that we do it together, as a family. We all pitch in to make our garden the perfect place to spend summery days and we can all enjoy it together. 





Do you work together to get your garden summer ready?