Advice for a Non gardener

[Dualipa]

I have no gardening knowledge at all so please keep your advice very simple😬

I'm very lucky to have a border round my garden with trees / shrubs that just keep coming back each year without me doing anything to them.

Now I have a space that needs filling and I want something else that needs no / little work.

I thought about another Acer tree but if I buy seeds then I'm lead to believe it could take years to see any growth? But if I buy a acer tree then it's £££!!

What or where could I get something that's not too expensive so I don't have to wait years to see a result?

As you can’t get out, this might not be the year to plant permanent stuff, so how about veg? Pumpkins? Easy to do from seed, keep them inside for a bit (you can plant the seeds in a bit of soil and an empty toilet roll) and then plant them out? Eat in October? Or gay some bee friendly seeds, like wildflowers?

How big a space? How close to the house - is it in any shade, is it close to a hedge? Do you have any preference for flowering/non flowering or conifer type shrubs? And finally - how big a shrub would you like - there are the smaller hebes, lavenders etc through the 2m shrubs to small trees.

The supermarkets are currently full of shrubs and places like Aldi are inexpensive. Trying to grow shrubs from seeds is a thankless task - you need to buy one in a pot ready to transplant and which will flower, if not this year, then next year for sure.

This is a photo of my garden. I've put an x where there is now a large space.
As you can see everything is pretty big

Choysia, camellia, one of the bigger hebes (info on the label), deutzia, buddlia, Philadelphia.

If it's a space where a shrub has been before then the soil will need a bit of TLC, and as PP said growing from a seed is not viable.

I second a Choisia (Mexican Orange Blossom). It's evergreen, the flowers have a lovely scent, its grows reasonably quickly but without becoming overwhelming and is very easy to look after. Not too expensive either.

Good suggestions from PPs, but since it looks pretty shaded for at least some of the day I'd consider a skimmia ... bombproof, evergreen and not too expensive even for a large one

Thank you, we've gone for a choisia!

You won't regret it, Dualipa - it's a lovely plant and should swiftly get larger if it's happy with the position