Erm...I just did some gardening and I liked it!!

[Molehillmountain]

Have been resistant to all attempts to convert me to the joys of growing but just spent an hour hacking at stuff and digging up dandelions all the way to the bottom of their tap roots. And I liked it for more than the fact I was outside and dc inside! Green stuff was uncovered and it all looks tidy. My niche is helpful destruction though I think!

Glad you enjoyed it :) What will you do next? What's the green stuff? :o

I went a bit mad on gardening last year, I loved the excuse that I needed to water my veg for 20 minutes peace in the garden at dusk.

What will you grow?

Getting a dandelion root out in one piece is very satisfying

I enjoy the hacking / chopping / digging / sawing than the more delicate stuff as well! DH looks really worried every time I go into the garden

The green stuff is some kind of bulb. Don't remember any tulips last year and it looks different to the bluebells. Wait and see I guess! We've had mad growing spurts before and bite off more than we can chew. I wonder about some ferns because it's very shady but there are loads of big trees/ shrubs so wherever I grow needs to cope with roots. But I need to start small. I can talk the talk with gardening but I need to follow that with consistent looking after. Dh grows sweet peas-lovely. And I try veg in pots but we go away last week in July for a fortnight every year so they rarely survive. What would do good growing cover in shade - apart from weeds?!

Try rhs plant selector hours of fun

I am keen amateur as well so unable to give you many tips for shade. Ferns you got. Cyclamen are good for shade. Frittillera or something what are they called now.

t was this thing I was thikning of but it only puts up with partial shde

Lungwort, Cranesbill, Thyme, Violets

Ooh-I've seen those fritillaries in my in laws garden! Really pretty. And those names sound so poetic together popcorn that they'll be bound to look lovely too! I think I'm going to make ground cover on that border a proper project. Will it kind of look after itself once it's in? Not that I'm trying to be lazy

Should look after itself, yes :) If a plant likes the conditions it will spread a fair bit and you may have to rein it in. If it doesn't, then take it out and try something else. And if you plant several different things you can see what succeeds and what doesn't - and it will sort itself out fairly naturally.

I'm looking forward to this! Will a garden centre help with exactly what to buy? This patch is the main bit I see out of the kitchen window so seems a good place to start. The previous owners of our house would weep if they saw our garden now, but they were retired and completely garden focused. And although the shrubs and trees they planted we're very healthy, you couldn't get under them to build dens as our children will be able to. Hmm...trample proof shade loving, ground cover plants? Maybe some bare patches with bark?

Don't make the mistake of going to the garden centre and getting carried away and buying stuff you like the look of and thinking "I'm sure it'll be fine" and actually it's the wrong amount of sun / wrong soil etc. I have a habit of buying plants that have an eventual size that is way too big for the space I've got...

Yes they will be able to help you at the garden centre.