Faraway Furniture™ Journeys

Staying fit and active is so important for our physical and mental health, especially whilst in lockdown. In fact, over the last month 60,500 Brits Googled “exercise”, highlighting that it is high on our lockdown agenda. As a result, FarawayFurniture.com have researched the best activities you can do in your garden to lose weight and stay active whilst self-isolating.

To do this, we have analysed a selection of popular garden activities and estimated how many calories could be burnt per hour (on average) – but, please note, this is dependent on your current fitness level and how vigorously you attack each activity.

A breakdown of the best garden activities to lose weight:

FarawayFurniture.com can reveal that mowing the lawn with a manual push mower is the best garden activity you can do to burn calories. This was closely followed by digging in the garden, which is estimated to burn 350 calories per hour.

In third place is assembling garden furniture, which burns an estimated 275 calories per hour.  Following closely behind in fourth, and burning just 25 calories less, is manually trimming hedges, which burns 250 calories.

You may also like:DIY Garden Ideas That Will Inspire You

Fifth place is occupied by weeding. This garden activity includes copious amounts of bending over and squatting, therefore it is no surprise that this activity manages to burn roughly 175 calories per hour.

If you have a dog, you may be in luck! Picking up dog poo could burn an estimated 150 calories per hour! Who knew?

If you would like to focus on the aesthetics of your garden, this is also a great way to burn calories! Our research has found that painting fences could burn125 calories per hour, and cleaning your patio could burn an estimated 100 calories per hour!

Unsurprisingly, planting seeds is the least strenuous for losing calories, with just 50 being burnt per hour. Raking leaves only burns 25 more per hour with 75 calories.

These results show that while it may be difficult being stuck at home, you can still get some good quality exercise and stay in shape. Another bonus is that your garden will look in great shape too, ready for a summer of entertaining friends and family when things go back to normal! So, next time there’s a nice sunny day, head outside and tend to your garden to get your body in tip top shape. 

Be sure to read our blog posts for some garden inspiration.

Image credit: Shutterstock/Tretyakov Viktor

What can improve your physical and mental health, while bringing life to your living space? Houseplants of course!

As spring fast approaches, deciding which wonderful flowers to plant in your garden can be tricky. From sunflowers to roses the choices are never ending.

So, why not turn to Instagram for some inspiration? The experts at Faraway Furniture accumulated the number of hashtags per flower to discover which one claims first place.

Growing your own produce is not only extremely fulfilling and an enjoyable hobby to pass time all year round, but it is a great step forward towards being more sustainable. A greenhouse gives you freedom when it comes to what you can grow, and even gives your less hardy plants a home when the cold weather hits. If you’re thinking about setting up your own greenhouse but don’t know where to begin, follow this guide with some fantastic greenhouse tips for beginners.

We have previously provided readers with 6 ways of attracting wildlife to their garden and 6 ways of attracting birds to their garden. For those who want even more information on how to transform their garden into a lively playground for various fauna, we will continue our series of guides with one aimed at teaching you how to attract squirrels to your garden.  

Squirrels are small, bushy-tailed rodents that can be found living all over the world. In order to understand how to attract squirrels to your garden, you must first get to know these tiny animals. Knowing what they eat and what sort of environment they prefer to live in will allow you to design your outdoor space in such a way that squirrels will not only want to come there but will also want to spend most of their days there.

Many people have experienced the disappointment of planting a flower in their garden only for it to die just a few days later. There can be plenty of reasons as to why a plant doesn’t thrive. More often than not, the most important reason is due to the fact that it’s been planted in the wrong season. If you are in the mood to liven up your garden with some new flowers, then perhaps it would be useful to know which flowers will excel in which season.

Whether you are a pro at gardening or just getting started, everyone knows just how important soil is if you want your plants to grow and prosper. Learning how to grow different types of vegetables or flowers is great, but arguably the most important thing is the process you must follow to prepare the soil beforehand.

If you are contemplating growing your own vegetable garden, you are not alone. As the price of imported fruits and vegetables are expected to rise by 8% after Brexit, according to The Guardian, homegrown produce is becoming even more appealing. 

Of course, many are also jumping on the garden-therapy trend and committing to boycott genetically modified produce. So how do you grow a fruit and vegetable garden? This guide will cover the ten-step process to help you grow a fruit and vegetable garden from scratch.

Summer is right around the corner and with that comes endless BBQ’s and gatherings with all your family and friends. From the months of May to September (excluding the odd day of torrential rain in between) most of your free time will be spent situated in your garden.

You’ve organised and perfected every last detail in each room of your home, and it’s been domestic bliss during the winter months. But there’s one more room you haven’t thought of. A garden room. Now the weather’s changing and for the first time this year we can venture outside without multiple layers, a scarf and coat. The sun is back and your garden is in need of revival. But where do you start in creating your own sheltered outdoor slice of serenity.

What is a garden room?

If you don’t know already, a garden room is a specific area in your backyard, it is an area for seating, for basking in the British summer time (and hopefully some sun). It’s a chance to add a touch of interior design outdoors.

Where to start

Choose the right spot

This is essential to make the most of the space you have. Some gardens lend themselves to garden rooms with very little effort required to creation and others may need extra thought and planning. The goal is to create the effect of a living, breathing room just like a sitting room in your house, but, in most cases, minus four walls.

Garden room design ideas

One of the defining features of a garden room is the ability to sit and eat outside which makes it a decorative yet functional space that can be enjoyed. But there are many different styles of garden rooms to choose from, here’s a selection of the best ideas.

The different styles of garden rooms:

Open-air

These garden rooms require no housing or walls to enclose the space. The above example uses an elegant table set-up set on a backdrop of curved overhead arches to draw focus to the centre and give a feel for the indoors outside. They’ve used floral-themed glass ornaments as centrepieces and added wine glasses and bowls of fresh bread. A set of rustic wicker chairs upon a red-brick patio and overhanging vines give a feel of Italian countryside manor to this LA garden.

Purpose-built structure

If space (and cash) is not an issue then you can create your garden room as a free-standing separate structure in your garden. This is effectively a summerhouse, but the cedar panelled ‘eco’ style makes it slot into its surrounding effortlessly. Complete with a grass roof, heating and lighting, it’s certainly big enough to turn it into the room of your choice; study, games room, kitchen or guest lodge. And best of all its unlikely it will require planning permission.

Open-plan

Some houses have the ability to transform the space between the indoors and the outdoors. Most people use French doors, but these houses do things a little differently. The veranda of this property is open to the elements, and leads straight from the kitchen. The design of this garden room is impeccable, and we should hope so as it was the thought child of architect, Jonathan Tuckey. The 4.3 metre long collapsible table is set upon grey wood flooring panels and a built-in bench lines the foreground.

Natural

Aside from trying to make a space resemble a house or specific room that you’d traditionally find indoors, some people have bucked the trend and made their garden rooms at one with nature. Simplicity is this glorious terrace designs strength. And with a few intelligent touches, is something that can be replicated in most gardens. Wisteria is grown over a pergola and the branches are suspended with ties. The pergola frame has been painted a dark green to blend with the foliage making it almost invisible. Cast iron lanterns are hung on all four corners and the white cushions and furnishings have been chosen to compliment the white flowering.

Create your own design

Image credit to: www.home-designing.com

You truly can make your garden room in to whatever you like. Far from the standard seating area many garden rooms achieve, this garden room has glass window doors and a standalone ceramic double bath looking out over the rest of the garden. Privacy is not a primary concern for this design, but would be perfect as a romantic setting at night or a refreshing soak when the sun rises.

All images credit to: houseandgarden.co.uk