A Guide To Creating A Caravan Friendly Garden

If you want to create an outdoor space to escape to, or if you need to dress up your holiday home’s curb appeal, your garden area will need attention. It’s not that you need to completely overhaul the plot, but you will benefit more from your caravan lifestyle if you give your garden a facelift with a few finishing touches and plants dotted strategically.

Below, we’ve listed a few static caravan garden ideas to help you really make the most of your outdoor holiday home space, no matter how big the plot is.

Seating

Seating plays a big part in caravan gardens, especially if you intend on spending summers in your caravan. Some seating choices include:

• Comfy New England style seating that can be made from wood or plastic, available in the colour of your choice; designed for hours of sitting down and wiling away summer days, this style of garden seating is not only practical but attractive too
• Stackable garden furniture can save a lot of space in smaller plots like those found in caravan parks. You can choose plain block or metallic colours, or you can mix it up with bright summery hues, whatever fits your style
• You can keep it traditional and give a little nod to the proper British summer holiday with a set of Union Jack coloured deck chairs, which will add a fun yet relaxed vibe to your caravan garden. View our luxury range of holiday parks here today and get booking!

Seating goes hand in hand with decking. Some popular caravan patio ideas include adding some seating alongside a trellis for privacy, and string lights to make it cosy on those warm summer nights. Another idea is to add a BBQ (if you have enough space), and maybe some friendly ornaments that really bring your caravan exterior to life.

Plant Life

Plants add life and colour to any space in which they are situated – whether indoors or outdoors. The easiest way of incorporating plants into your caravan is through the use of containers. Not only can this safe time and effort, but it also helps to keep things low maintenance if you’re not going to be in your caravan all the time. Here are some hints and tips on container gardens:

• Rustic wooden barrels look great with pretty colours or wildflowers on top
• Old household items like colanders can be upcycled and used as planters, especially as they already have holes, making them ideal for drainage
• Old buckets and watering cans make excellent planters. Drill in drainage holes and use colour, embellishments or a distressed motif
• Novelty items like painted chairs, furniture and retired garden equipment all add a homely yet shabby-chic feel to a garden
• Pretty up old, plain plant pots and mason jars to create sweet containers for smaller flowers, plants and herbs

Vegetables

Instead of digging up your garden or risking poor quality soil, build yourself a raised-bed vegetable garden.

Though you can’t grow certain vegetables, specifically those with long roots and great height like potatoes and corn, you will get a good yield. It doesn’t matter what quality soil is underneath, you can even build the bed on concrete, just make sure you put good quality compost in the lined bed and ensure it gets plenty of sunlight (six hours a day).

For a guide on how to construct a raised-bed vegetable garden out of material such as stone, wood, brick and cinderblock, see here. As for what vegetables to grow, try some (or all) of the below…

• Tomatoes
• Marrow/Cucumber
• Peppers (sweet or spicy)
• Spinach
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Radishes
• Carrots
• Sugar Snap Peas

Fruit

There is nothing more refreshing than a perfectly ripe, freshly picked apple from your own garden. If you want to grow your own garden, fruit is a tasty, fragrant and attractive choice of crop. Whilst fruit can also be grown in raised beds, you do have other options. Make use of pots and containers, which will work well for most fruits. You can even dot these pots and containers around the garden to add some attractive colour and greenery, as well as provide you with a tasty harvest.

Some fruits you could opt for include:

• Apples (culinary and eating)
• Cherries (Sunburst, Stella)
• Grapes (New York Muscat, Seybal Blanc)
• Olives
• Peaches (Duke of York, Garden Lady, Peregrine)
• Pears (Concorde, Conference)
• Plums (Opal, Victoria)
• Strawberries
• Raspberries

Herbs

Herbs can grow to an impressive size, but they don’t necessarily require the same space as their fruit and veg counterparts. If you want to put them in the raised vegetable garden, you can. If you want them in a pot, that’s fine too. And if you are a little pushed for space, you can even pop them in a window box or similar-sized planter; just imagine casually being able to pick fresh herbs to add to your pasta sauce…try these popular herbs in your garden:

• Basil
• Parsley
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Chives
• Thyme
• Sage
• Mint

Accessories

Accessories of all shapes and sizes can really finish off your garden; think of it as decorating a room with no walls and no ceiling. These are a few accessories that work well in caravan gardens:

• Give a nod to your caravan’s heritage with a caravan bird feeder
• Lighting is always a nice touch in a summer garden, especially one that will no doubt see its fair share of evening usage as a dining room, living room and stargazing room. Go for candles, fairy lights and solar lights for soft mood lighting
• Think about multipurpose accessories. For example, introducing garden storage solutions that actually look ornamental and add to the feel and appearance of the garden is a great way to go. Good ideas include easily concealed lean-to sheds, painted tall free-standing sheds and storage benches that provide storage, decoration and seating

These are just some of the things you can consider when setting up or improving your garden. Of course, things like available space and maintenance will play a part in how much you can do.

For example, if you visit your Allens holiday home on a regular basis then you can afford to choose plants and accessories that require more maintenance. On the other hand, if you only visit your holiday home a few times a year, you will need to opt for low-maintenance, naturally robust items.

However you end up planning and creating your caravan friendly garden, have fun with it and make yourself a sanctuary. Don’t be afraid to ask your neighbours for help and advice too, especially those with allotments of their own or a keen interest in gardening.

Get in Touch

To find out more about static caravans and holiday homes at Allens Caravans, please contact us and we’ll be more than happy to help.