**Complete Novice Klaxon** Any help gratefully received!

[TuesdayNightClub]

We moved into a rented townhouse 6 months ago which has a front "patio" which keeps us about 8 feet back from the street, with steps going up to the front door. This ws nicely kept with a mixture of things planted around the edge of the patio and things in giant tubs going along the side of the steps and up when we moved in.

Everything in the patio is brown and straggly and there are green things poking through the gaps in the patio. I have never gardened before and haven't a clue what to do with it to make it nicer. Every house plant I've ever had has withered and died at my very touch

Questions:

• should I pull out(?) the green stuff coming up in the cracks (are these weeds?)

• What should I get to go in the tubs? It needs to be something hardy (so I don't kill it) and the patio is very very sunny (for Northern UK) but not at all sheltered from wind.

• do I need to do anything with the bushes etc that are planted in the ground? There are a few different types and they are varying colours of green. And quite bushy.

• where do I buy such things? Homebase or somewhere?

• is March the right time to be doing this?

Thank you for any help you can give! I'll make you all a nice cuppa, and I promise to post pictures once finished if that entices you

Hello newbie gardener and don't be scared!

Pull up the stuff growing between the paving slabs, they are most likely weeds

I suggest you get lavender for your tubs, but don't buy the french, or 'rabbit eared' kind if you see it as is not hardy (will die in the winter). English lavender will look nice all year round. It will grow about 18" -2' wide so you may only need one per pot. You should pay around £5 -£6 per plant.
You can buy this from Homebase, B&Q etc, local markets also do it and if you have a garden centre nearby then they can give you advice too. Buy some bags of compost too as you don't plant new plants into old compost.

March is fine for planting lavender.

If it's not too windy then next month you might like to put some bedding plants in the other pots. Things like petunias and lobelia. These are sold in the same places as above, pretty cheap, put several in per pot and they will give you lots of bright colours all summer. These ones die over winter and you should pull them out and compost them in November and plant daffodil and tulip bulbs in the pots then.

The bushes - leave them and see if they flower. If they do, and they are too big then trim them back after they have finished flowering (with the nice sharp secateurs you bought yourself when you were at the garden centre). Cut off the stems which flowered.
If they don't flower and they are too big then prune them back in August.
If they are not too big then don't prune them.

If you post pics of the brown straggly things, we might be able to advise on whether they're plants that will regenerate in spring (ie now) or really are dead.

Thank you for the replies! Very much appreciated.

I tried to put some photos on my profile but they just kept saying "we don't have that photo" or somesuch... gah. In any event, I had a look at the tubs whilst photographing them and some do have some green shoots in them (to use a political term!)

Should I try to preserve the green bits? Or just start afresh? I would say each tub is roughly 85% brown and straggly 15% green.

Keep the green and cut off the brown. Just cut back to above where the green seems to end.