News & guides

Do I need planning permission for a shed?

The question on every legally-minded gardener’s lips is this: Do I need planning permission for a garden shed? Well, with some key caveats, I have some good news. Normally, planning permissions is not required to build a shed on your property. So, pop down to Stewart Timber, pick out a design that you like and […]

Seven Top Tips to Prepare Your Garden for Winter

There’s a palpable chill in the air. The leaves are starting to show flecks of orange and gold. The nights draw and the sun gets up later. Winter is coming. Thankfully, it’s still a couple of months away and we’ve got a cool autumn to enjoy first. That also means you have two full months […]

Growing Veggies in Your Garden: The Prep

Scotland is a mixed back for growing fruit veg. While we’re well equipped to keep the plants nice and hydrated, our Spring and Summer can be a little lacking in the sun department. However, with a little care and attention you can turn even the wettest of gardens into an oasis of juicy tomatoes, crunchy […]

Reinvent Your Deck

It’s easy to install your deck then leave it as is. Not that that’s a bad thing. If you got your deck from us, it’s a fine deck, after all. Some might say it’s a mighty fine deck! But if you leave even the best deck unchanged for years, it can get stale and boring. Every […]

Build it Yourself: Wooden Pergola

In most parts of the world, pergolas are used to cast much-needed during the afternoon, sheltering man and beast from the relentless midday sun. Here at home, things tend to be a bit different. In Scotland, pergolas spend most of their lives sheltering people from the relentless drizzle! Unfortunately, pergolas won’t actually shelter you from […]

5 Simple Garden Hacks

At Stewart Timber, we’re big fans of gardening tips, tricks and hacks. If it gives us more time to spend enjoying the garden we’ve created, you can generally count us in. That’s why every time a customer tells us a tip we haven’t heard before, it gets noted down in our big book of gardening […]

Build it Yourself: A Small Bird Box

If you like waking up to the sweet cheeping of sparrows, a bird box is the perfect addition to your garden. And with a little know-how, a bird box doesn’t have to mean an expensive trip to the garden centre either. With a plank of wood, a saw and a couple of screws, you can […]

Spruce Up Your Deck

Timber decks are a fantastic way to bridge the space between house and garden. However, we often find that once constructed, people leave a deck to its own devices and this squanders all of a deck’s potential. By changing up the layout of your deck or by dressing it differently, you can completely reinvent and […]

Five Tips for Perfect Painting: The Prep

It’s time for a story. Once upon a time there was a person who stared at the fading paint on their walls and thought, “I can do better.” So off they went to visit tens of different shops and collect hundreds of colour swatches. They sat down and stared for hours at the stacked swatches […]

How to Restore an Oak Beam: Get Your Beams Beaming

Listen up, all you oak lovers! We all know there’s nothing nicer than a quality piece of timber but we also know the sinking feeling when you see your beams, benches and other assorted timber features looking a little worse for wear. There’s some good news, though. Most of the time this decline in decorative […]