Garden help for complete novice

[Weallgottachangesometime]

Does anyone know of some very easy plant to make a garden look pretty?
I kill almost everything I plant and am a terrible (lazy) gardener. I have some beds with beautiful plants planted by previous owner and am looking for some filler plants for the spaces in between. Any suggestions??

also any suggestions to control weeds around my plants? Is that why people put bark etc on beds?

I was thinking of putting wild flower seeds down - but don’t ooo just accept the the ugly weeds with the flowers then? And what happens when they die??

When annuals (like wildflower seeds) die, you just pull them out the ground by the bottom to make sure the roots are out. Then next year you sprinkle more seeds.

What direction does the flower bed face and what type of soil is it? There are loads of things you can plant that require very little effort. I especially like bulbs that reappear every year with no effort. It depends what type of flowers you like, whether you want to come some for vases, what colours and height you want and how much space you have to fill.

The fuller the soil the less weeds grow. You can use bark, or a ground cover plant for more colour is more effective.

Try reposting the gardening section too. V helpful people there

I'd suggest penstemon and salvias.
Lots of choice of colours. Flower their socks off for about 6 months of the year. Almost impossible to kill (some salvias not really frost hardy).

thanks for the advice so far. I really am a terrible gardener so any help is rest.

i have beds on 3 sides so facing south east and west. The soil seems quite dense and the ground is easily water logged in our garden. The previous Owner was a keen gardener so we have some beautiful plants, trees and roses. Just hard work to keep on top off. Thing like the lavender loolk awful where I didn’t manage them well last year!!

I wouldn't scatter wildflower seeds as they only look pretty for a few weeks really. Marigolds and pelargoniums are about to bloom and cheap as chips. I stop weeds by filling any gaps with plants that I like. There isn't really any right or wrong with gardening; you learn as you go along. I knew nothing about gardening when I moved into my current house a few years ago and now my garden is one of the prettiest ones on the street 😜.

Pretty plants that will spread to fill gaps include vinca (periwinkle), ajuga (bugle) , Japanese anemone, forget me nots (these aren't perennials but seed themselves happily), geraniums (the perennial type, not the bedding plants), hellebores, heucheras, valerian, astilbe and centaureas.

Morrisons is great for cheap perennials and bedding plants, much more reasonable than most nurseries and garden centres, and the plants are usually very good quality.

Sounds like you have clay soil?

In which case lavender will hate it and it likes very sandy soil that drains very well.

Tbh I would just buy some cheap annual bedding plants each year to full the gaps. Annual means they will die off each year and need replacing.

Or viola plants which love my clay garden, are Hardy, spread like mad and almost unstoppable and come back year fter year

If you already have a structure (roses etc) and are just looking for a way to keep the weeds down in-between the plants you could do worse than just buying a load of (cheap!) compost and using it as a mulch. Over time it will improve the clay soil and as you gain in confidence you can put some other plants in. The best way to avoid weeds is to have no gaps, which is where things like hardy geraniums (as per PP) are brilliant.

The plants already there will spread eventually.
Morrison's definitely worth a look, they do quite a few bee friendly plants. Hebes are very low maintenance. You could plant bulbs- in spring for autumn flowers, in autumn for spring flowers. If you shake wildflowers when they have finished they will reseed themselves.

Thank you for the advice re wild flowers. I might just put some of the seeds in my spare pots and see how they go.

@maximist thanks for the plant suggestions. That’s so helpful. Bit overwhelming at the shop with so many options!

@Bramshott thats a good point. As the one place the weeds are bad is the area where there is massive gaps in between the larger bushes and plants. I might get some more bushes to fill with. To be fair the ones we have seem to live and just need trimming.

so helpful thanks all!

I have clay soil and my lavender is doing alright. It needs lots and lots of sun as well as enough space more than anything. I prefer English lavender; had no luck with French.

Yea a lot of people round me do have lavender. My issue is it grew a lot last year and I obviously didn’t chop it back properly and now it’s all woody and shit. Can it be saved? Trimmed back?

It's a bit late to prune it now. You can either leave it and wait for it to self-seed or start again with a new plant from the shop. I do trim mine back to the lowest green bits each autumn / winter.

I’d plant east perennial that spread quickly euphorbia crocosmia shasta daisys they’ll take a year to establish but once they are going your main problem will be stopping the bloody things! In the mean time fill the gaps with annuals geraniums pansys (will grow in sun or shade) cosmos they are easy to grow and come in a variety of colours the key to success with all bedding plants is plenty of water. If you’re on clay it will dry out very badly if there’s a drought so you need to water on a regular basis.
I can’t recommend this this book enough. It is essential that you plant plants especially perennials in the right place it’s my bible I’ve given it to a few friends and they also comment on how brilliant it is.

Well I wish I read this 30 minutes ago!! 😂
guess I’ll be starting again!!

It might be fine; you'll find out in a few weeks ;-).

I'd second hardy geraniums, which will spread and be great ground cover, and foxgloves, which self-seed well.

I was given a clump of centauria which I'd admired in a friend's garden and the blasted thing is everywhere now so that would be great if you want something that grows like wildfire and spreads!

This is centauria, otherwise called knapweed.

Oh I think I have the in the garden at the front. It’s just sprung up….I assume planted last year by the previous owner!

For the very waterlogged parts of my garden, I’ve found Physostegia loves it and is growing rampantly. I’ve got white, pink, and a variegated version in full sun. I’ve also got Claytonia Sibirica self seeding like mad in that area. It’s really pretty ground cover to crowd out the weeds but it has plans for world domination.

Ligularia, Rogersia, Lysimachia Clethroides, Persicaria Superba, and Thalyctrum would also work in sun. Darmera Peltata is good in a more shaded spot.

Use the RHS website to search for plants that will work for your conditions: https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/search-form