Everyone loves a bit of camping – nothing better than setting your tent up and kicking back with a campfire roaring in front of you. Sometimes it can be hard to find the time to arrange a camping trip, and some of us aren’t blessed with the ability to be able to haul a load of camping gear cross-country due to having too small a car – or no car at all!  Or maybe you're looking for ways to save money as a parent on holidays this year, but still want the kids to have a fun experience.

There is a solution to this though, simply go camping in your own back yard! You might say, “but that sounds like a rubbish idea, all I can do is put my tent up and sit there.” Well, that would be a pretty awful way to go about your back-garden camping experience wouldn’t it? I think you need to use your imagination a little more – because there are plenty of opportunities to turn your garden into the great outdoor experience you know it can be capable of!

Here are a few of my sure-fire tips for turning your garden camping adventure from a crippling bore to a fantastic weekend for everyone involved!

Shut yourself off from life

You may be in your garden, but if you’re constantly nipping back into the house for supplies then are you really ‘camping’? Make sure you have everything you need and lock up behind you. That includes leaving the phones and tablets indoors – if we’re doing fake camping, we’re doing it the ‘real’ way!

Set up your palace

Getting everyone involved with the tent is the best way to get the job completed in no time. It’s important that you get a great tent, too, because there’s nothing worse than being confined to a cramped tent that gets damp at the slightest feel of rain! So for that reason, I’d recommend one of the Garden & Camping glamping tents – you really will notice the difference when you get a bit of festival luxury in your life.

Build an awesome campfire

We’ve all seen what a terrible campfire looks like, a few twigs of wood thrown together that burn out within the space of a few minutes… and you’re expected to cook your dinner on this? I could go into the many ways to build a great campfire – but that’s another article. I recommend you follow this guide for building the best campfire for your needs. Make sure you pick a spot that you’re not precious about though, because that fire will play havoc with the grass on your lawn!

Push the food up to fifth gear

So, you’ve got your fire blazing, time to get cooking! Think traditional BBQ food here (I use Dees vegan sausages) and you won’t go wrong – anything on a skewer is always great fun to cook because anyone can do it. All superb camping trips aren’t complete without roasting marshmallows on a stick, but I think we can do better than that, make some s’mores! That classic American camping treat featuring melted marshmallows squashed between two crackers… you’ll be picking bits out of your teeth for weeks but it’ll be totally worth it.  And yes, you can even get vegan marshmallows!

There we have it four ways to turn your backyard camping experience into something you’ll be remembering for years to come.