To think I can't garden?

[Nostrings457]

I really want to be a 'gardener.' Grow veggies, have nice flowers etc. I have quite a large garden with lots of sun but it is a combination of flags, grass and a few trees . . .not a flower in sight.
I need somewhere to learn but everything I have found online seems to assume you have some knowledge already. E.g how do you know whether to plant on the ground or in containers. How do you know if flowers will live, bloom again? Any ideas of where to start?

I find gardeners world quite a useful resource

www.gardenersworld.com/

And the RHS have a beginners guide

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/beginners-guide

But in all honesty, a lot of it is trial and error and learning as you go! Good luck

Everything i try to grow dies, no matter what I do or what research I follow.

I'm a terrible gardener.

Last year I joined a group on Facebook called plant identification uk and posted pictures of every single plant in my new garden. Then researched each one, dug up, moved, split .... and this year, it looks surprisingly good!

Veg I find much easier in pots on the patio- tomatoes, peas, courgettes, herbs etc are very easy to grow.

Flowering shrubs that are right for your soil and sunlight will always grow and prosper I find if you plant them properly and water well.

Buy plug plants or small plants to get going.
You can get veg tomatoes etc
And flowers. Look at what your nieghbours grow as you will have similar soil type

@YouJustDoYou thats me too not that i have tried much in the garden but i dont have much luck with house plants either

We moved to a house with a garden last year. Beforehand I didnt have a garden.
I basically bought some pots, compost and plants and stuck them in the pots.
I also dug a great big bed (removed grass, used a garden fork to turn over the soil, and added more compost- then stuck some veggie seeds in.
I have learnt so much from last year.

I would say just try! Doesn't matter if it doesn't all work. I had problems with my Acers so just looked them up online. Same with my courgettes.

I found helleborus easy, lavender easy, geranium easy (though I've learnt I dont like them).
Peas and runner beans are idiot proof, as is spinach and lettuce.
Courgette grows easily- but make sure you dont leave the fruit lying on the ground. Bastard slugs love it.

There is a gardening section on MN that is very helpful and friendly

I agree a lot is trial and error.
I google a lot and I also read the labels throughly when buying a plant.
The rhs have a book called encyclopedia of plants and flowers which is quite handy.

If you're going to garden the first thing to accept is that plants will die. Sometimes it's your fault because you done something f@&king stupid. Sometimes it's for no discernible reason. Either way it's not the end of the world.

I found the Crocus website really helpful. You don't have to actually buy your plants from there (it's quite expensive) but it's really good for telling you what sort of light/soil is most suitable for each plant, how big it will get, whether it's perennial (comes back every year) or annual (only lasts one year) etc.

Also, starting with the back garden is really good because then you can experiment and no one but you will see the results

On your daily walk look at what flowers other folk are growing locally. Take pics ( without looking like a stalker) and use a plant identification app to find out what they are.
Your soil type should be the same so hopefully said plants will be happy in your garden.
Regardless if planting anything in the soil, dig it over really well Before planting and add manure or blood and bone meal and water the hole first. Add the plant, back fill with soil, firm it in well, water again.
Water new plants daily/ every other day unless very rainy for several weeks.
Almost any veg and most annual plants will grow in pots, for flowers choose the ones on sale at supermarkets right now ( things like fuschia, geranium, lobelia, petunia) but don’t leave out uncovered for at least another couple of weeks. They only grow this year, you will need new ones next year. For veg try tomatoes or salad seeds, as above water daily.
Again water pots daily, liquid fertilisers are easy to apply and make your plants grow better

Oh, and ime, plants outside are far easier to keep alive than houseplants..

Children’s books on gardening really helped me 😀

Have you tried Sunday Gardener?

For me, gardening has been a lot of trial and error, I often buy cheap plants from roadside stands and hope for the best. Aquilegia are easy to grow and come back year after year and for fruit and veg we downloaded a gardeners calendar from the BBC that told you what to plant when and how to start it off (in pots or directly into the soil for example)

I'm a beginner. Look up how to find out what type of soil you have and plant things that like that soil. Work out where you have sunny areas/ shady areas and do the same. I think most things are ok in containers but you have to water them all the time.

I hear you. I felt the same. I am in the process of feeling bad because I think I've killed my roses this week by overfeeding.....

I didn't even know the basics...I wish someone had told me about compost, and feeding and pruning in gardening....but as you say people assume you know the basics already, and I find the youtube videos confusing especially the American ones. I still don't understand the basic jargon, what is mulch/compost/manure/loam etc etc.

What I've found useful is watching Gardener's World (Friday night or iPlayer), I got some gardening books targeted at beginning and growing food in containers, and also subcribed to RHS - they have a telephone helpline and I called them for the first time last week and felt so much better about what to do with all the shoots coming from the ground around my Annabelle hydrangeas.

But also I think a lot of it is learning by trial and error, and not to think that just because things fail, you are rubbish at gardening.....that was my thinking for a long time.

thats me too sad not that i have tried much in the garden but i dont have much luck with house plants either

My house has been a scene of many house plant massacres But garden. Different kettle of fish!
Some things will die on you, some not.

I started by going to online gardening shop and doing "Oooh. I like". They have in there whether the plant needs sun/shade, spacings and whether it's annual (1 year and die) or perennial. I have reshuffled plants fully twice so far. 1 tip. Check adult size of the plant! I need to move few heathers again. Which reminds me. Heathers. Great plants! Highly recommended!

Pick things you like to eat, flowers that look pretty, read the instructions on the packet and throw them in the ground. There's some trial and error involved.

Yy to Gardener's World

Also, whatever your political persuasion, the Telegraph has the best gardening section (and this is coming from a lifelong Guardian reader). You can get a certain number of articles for free online if you don't buy it.

I used to have similar aspirations but then I realised that I don't really enjoy gardening that much and a Heather I had planted died. They seem to do well enough on their own on mountains and such like, yet I killed one off, so I am clearly lethal . I'm settling for weeding round my surviving shrubs for now.

I hope you get on well though!

I started watching Gardeners world, bought a few magazines and borrowed some books from the library. I am now plant obsessed and my house and garden is like a jungle. I even have a wish list.

The biggest things to work out are the light you have (which direction does your garden face). Are you direct sun or shaded. What type of soil do you have? Mine is heavy clay so roses and fuchsias thrive but a lot of my stuff is in pots.

I once overwatered my tomato babies. So they started dying. I did not give up. I actually washed off the roots completely and repotted them🙈 THE BEST HARVEST EVER. I also have a drama llama plant in the garden who kept acting like it hasn't been watered for a month last summer after I moved it. It got over it now. Now I have drama llama raspberry plants🙄

So don't give up. Try. If it dies, it dies. If it doesn't, good!

I love gardening but I don't really have any real knowledge. I plant things I like and if they work, plant them again! Courgettes are a great veg to start with as they are pretty much unkillable and produce loads of veg from one plant. Just try and keep the slugs away.

The veg patch I pull up and turn at the end of the season as I always start a fresh and I like to feed the soil while it's not growing. Flowers and containers I just leave and wait and see what happens the next year. Some grow back and some don't but if they aren't looking good by this point then they get pulled and replaced. I've tried to grow my own marigolds from seed this year so we'll see how they go but if they don't do well then I've only lost a few quid!

Thank you for the famtastic tips I feel like there might be some hope, I want a pintrest worthy garden first time but might have to give up on that

Nostrings457 - I'm the same. I've been in my house for 10 years and still no clue what to do in the garden !! But plenty of Pinterest saved, this is the year !!

OP when I got my allotment 6 years ago I knew NOTHING about growing anything.

I got an inexpensive easy-to read book with lots of explanatory pictures. I started watching Gardeners World (I record it and fast forward through flowers stuff, cos they don't interest me) and have learned loads from Monty Don re veg growing.

Every packet of seeds has clear instructions on the back.

After the initial seed purchases it needn't be expensive - save seeds from crops for next years planting. Plant shop bought spuds that have sprouted. Bags of onion sets can be got from Poundland.

Asda are doing 3 huge bags of multi purpose compost for £10.

Some things won't work - some will be eaten by slugs or insects. You learn as you go along, and the internet is great for finding solutions to specific problems.