My top glamping tips

Further to my glamping inspiration post last week, here are my own top 10 tips for ‘glamping’:

1. Always make a friend of the site owner and your camping neighbours – you’re bound to need practical help or advice at some point.

2. Make your own entertainment. Bring short stories, quiz books or great speeches of the modern world, and enjoy dipping in and reading aloud to family and friends.

3. Fairy lights look magical when used outdoors, so let them twinkle.

4. Make it easy for friends to join you. It adds massively to the fun and you have the time to talk far beyond your normal agenda.

5. You’ll figure out the small things in life that make a difference – a decent tea mug, a sharp knife, a wind-up radio, a goose-down pillow, a lovely old crocheted blanket.

6. Get some comfortable chairs – and a means of wedging them level on uneven ground.

7. Don’t forget a fly-swatter.

8. The details of life really do matter. For me, it’s condiments, a nice bottle of wine and a box of plastic wine glasses with stems.

9. Gather your most attractive blankets – you’ll find they have a never-ending list of uses.

10. Apply the same principles to your own garden and move your dining table as far away from your house as is practicable. The distance just ‘does’ something to put you in a different mind-set.

This article was written for The Gardener magazine’s Spring/Summer 2012 issue. The Gardener magazine is available from The Garden Centre Group at http://www.thegardencentregroup.co.uk/