prepare for summer?

DawnW

If you want to grow some early potatoes, you can buy some seed ones, and place in an old egg tray on a windowsill to sprout ready for planting in March/ April. Place in the tray with the eyes (little shoots) facing upwards, one on each compartment

You can plant broad bean seeds and onion, garlic and shallots outside if the soil is in a suitable condition.

squeaky

valk_scot wrote: »

I did the gardening orders at the tail end of last year, and I was up the allotment today working out what jobs need done before spring arrives. But that's under "Gardening" in my mind, not "Home".

Apart from that all I've done is buy some sun cream at 75% off, last November, and sorted out the camping gear when the kids went back to school after the summer break. Camping gear doesn't like being stored dirty or wet as it goes fusty and rots. I bought any spares or new things we needed in the end of year sales and January would be the perfect time to buy a new tent as last year's models get discontinued around now. I don't need a new tent though.

The calendar is already full though for summer, with Scout Camps 1/2/3/4 written across most of it!

Reminds me of a very old joke...

Q: How do you tell that it's summer in Glasgow?

A: The rain is warmer.

meritaten

thanks for reminding me - I need new 'summer' curtains! and its a nightmare finding ones that 'look' lovely and light - but also have a good heavy lining! otherwise we cannot see the tv screen as the afternoon and evening sun falls right on it!
please dont suggest blinds - the grandkids would break them going in and out of the french doors!

cleggie

There has already been a 'Preparing for winter' thread, so i thought that we could have a summer one too?

What do you stock up on for summer?

I have started buying sun tan lotion and after sun, but still need to get:

Sunglasses
Flip Flops
Shorts
Skirts

What do YOU do to get prepared for summer?

gibson123

Sun tan lotion, I buy it half price i spring or winter

cleggie

I just popped over to the grabbit board and picked u some flipflops for £2.99, down from £15, so can cross that off my list.
Bought some suntan lotion from L!dl last week, and will pick up some more next week.

pavlovs_dog

for me it's stocking up on antihistamines

round the house it's getting the garden into order and looking out for bargains on fuel for the bbq/fire pit

bossymoo

We planted our seed potatoes and sorted through the rest of the salad seeds. Might. Start them off indoors afte the snow eek!

We've got mini pots of sun cream in each nursery bag. I've also been through the clothes box for my youngest, we inherit my friends dd clothes when she grows out of them, and my mil is a cs bargain hunter so dd is kitted out till she's about 20. Nothing matches though lol.

It's a shame boys clothes are harder to come by, still, I couldn't give away as rags some of ds's things by the time he's finished with them!

I've also tidied the shed so I can get to the parasol, and given the trikes and toddler slide a wipe down. They've been playing out loads more this last couple of weeks.

thriftwizard

Check through the camping stuff & see what needs updating/replacing. I know we need a new camp bed and several "new" sleeping bags. Happy to wait for people to try it out, hate it & donate their almost-new stuff to the charity shops for those as we tend to sleep almost fully-clothed, and we have some tatty old bags & lots of blankets to tide us over, but the bed I do need to know is sturdy; DH is tall & well-built (though not at all overweight) and we've had too many airbeds with slow punctures & collapsing camp beds to risk the main driver not getting enough sleep! Although mostly he chooses not to come now, and lets me get on with it.

Oh, and check & reproof the main tent; it's only a couple of years old (a Khyam, bought half-price in a sale) but wasn't used last summer for any serious trips, just a couple of overnighters. May need more proper tent pegs too; I've spotted one or two of mine holding things up in the garden! There's nothing worse than discovering you only have half the pegs you need at your destination; you can guarantee the local shops will only have those ridiculously bendy thin metal jobs that are worse than useless (though OK as emergency BBQ skewers) and will charge you a fortune for them.

Rosetta92

Cleggie - great idea for a thread.

My top two priorities are protection from the midges - they have mantrap jaws hearabouts - and making sure the curtains in the bedroom are able to keep the sun out. During the summer we have almost everlasting daylight so if I can't make the bedroom stay dark I only get about three hours sleep :eek:

On the holiday front, I'm receiving lots of emails offering discounts on ferries, hotels etc from the (few) companies I've used in the past so I'll be having a quick trawl through to see if I can take a MSE approach to booking a holiday.