How are you preparing your home for the summer?

[Akanksha]

With summer round the corner, I'm curious to know how everyone is planning on keeping their homes and gardens cool without breaking the bank. 

If you're looking for ideas, 10 ways to keep cool in the summer might help. I especially recommend checking out horticulturalist @Adam_W's guide How to protect your plants from the summer heat. The Bunnings team has also shared plenty of tips for cooling your home in the summer. 

Please share your ideas below. Tagging @marliemakesit, @Dave-1, @homeinmelbourne and @mich1972 to kickstart the discussion.

Akanksha 

[Dave-1]

Afternoon All

lol I will throw in some ideas I plan to do...

-I have a steel frame that I dragged out of the metal bin at work shhhhh That I intend to remove the rust, repaint and put a timber top on it for an outside bar table type deal.

-Build some lounge furniture for my deck from the recyled wood stockpile I have (with wheels so I can move it around)

-For the garden I would like to put up a chicken wire roof/curved or larger to stop the birds getting to my blackberries (I have net but fear that birds/bats will get caught in it.

-Redo the fairlights around the deck/pool

-Plumb water pipe to my garden beds for drip irrigation.

-Finish chook pen

-Convince my neighbours to buy a share sheep so we dont need to mow the lawn (week 1 the sheep is at my place, week 2 the neighbours, week 3 the next ones and then back to me)

Dave

[mich1972]

Here in Perth as it’s getting warmer, mulching is essential for our garden. To help retain moisture in the soil. 
Adding a Wetting Agent to our garden and lawn will help the water to penetrate into the soil and not run off. 
Also making sure that you have a few shallow dishes with pebbles around the garden topped up regularly with water for the birds, bees and lizards. 

[Dave-1]

@mich1972 

I have a stream that I have wanted to put in the front yard between my berms, I actually want to use long rectangular tubs and stagger them so the water runs without soaking into the ground. (second purpose is to allow stormwater to use the same path) You ahve just reminded me of the idea!

By the way how well do you find the wetting agents? My ground is aquaphobic to a high degree (I live on the East Coast down Wollongong way) and I have hesitated on using it without talking to someone who has used it.

Dave

[BoeingFan]

Earthwool R5.0 insulation in the roof and Earthwool R2.5 in the walls, as I can afford it. Also, pea straw mulch around the plants.

I also bought some Tapo smart plugs and 3 of them run high velocity fans; one in the kitchen, one in the living room and one in the bedroom. These are then linked to Amazon Echo Dots in each room with temperature sensors built in, and I've created Alexa routines so that when the temp exceeds 25c in a room, that rooms fan comes on automatically, and turns off automatically when the temp drops below 22c.