I need to start gardening and I've NEVER done it before

[SaltResistantSlug]

We need to sort the front garden especially. I can't help but feel we're lowering the tone of our street with our unruly grass and abundant weeds :) . But aside from cutting the grass and pulling the weeds (is pulling or spraying better?), I have no idea where to start. I'd like it to look pretty, eventually...

Any ideas/advice would be gratefully appreciated!

Go for a walk around where you live and see what other people have done. Get to know what you like/hate

Download some plant identifying apps so if you see a plant you like you know what it is.

Google before buying (RHS site is good) as not every plant is easy and may not grow in your soil.

Decide what colours you like too.

Soil preparation is key.

@plus3. If you dig up dormant bulbs while planting something else then just pop them back in again, make sure they are pointy side up and put them in deeper than you think, three times the depth of the bulb is the general rule. If the bulbs have only just finished flowering you can move them, though better to wait (unless they are snowdrops, whole other rule applies) the important thing is to let the green foliage die down naturally as this is what is feeding the bulb for next year.

When I am planting I have a can of water and some compost handy. Dig the hole big enough for the new plant , if it is in a pot test this by putting the whole thing in the hole. Then put a handful of compost in the bottom of the hole and fill the hole right up to the top with water. Let the water soak into the soil completely then you can plant your new plant after teasing out the roots a bit to encourage them to spread. That way there is moisture surrounding the rootball where the plant needs it. I also water the plant again when planted to help to settle the soil round the roots. Try to water around the base of the plant not the leaves.

This is a great thread. Just got a garden for the first time and it's quite overgrown so I am following with interest.

Download some plant identifying apps so if you see a plant you like you know what it is. Plant apps are merely automating the process of scanning through pics on google until you see something similar. They have no botanical knowledge, so they can get it completely and spectacularly wrong (eg mistaking a white flowered bush for a ground hugging succulent).

Early autumn is the optimum time for planting - no water stress, and time to get roots in ready to start growing away in spring. It used to be the only time to plant - plants were sold "bare root" and were lifted from the ground at the end of the growing season. It wasn't until the 1960s when there appeared the miracle of "container growing" and suddenly you could buy and plant plants all the year round. I suppose it was the result of the greater availability of plastics, particularly the rigid-yet-flexible sort that are used for pots, which weren't often seen in the 50s.

You still get some plants supplied bare-root, eg roses and fruit trees bought on-line from traditional nurseries. Saves transport costs because you're not transporting 5x the plant's weight in soil.

Delighted to have found this thread! I am reclaiming my garden. I had a gardener in to clear the seriously overgrown beds and I'm about to start digging over, weeding and planting. I'm really not a gardener. How can I make myself love it or will that come once I see some success? I'm looking out at it then putting off actually doing anything

What are you thinking of planting?

My advice would be to tackle a small area at once, and merely keep the rest vaguely tidy - for example, an uncut lawn can look deliberate and tidy if you trim the edges and mow a path through the middle. Focusing on a small area can give you something that is good to look at, whereas trying and failing with too big and area is merely dispiriting. Once one bit is under control, you can add another bit.

It may please you to know that you don't need to dig. When I started gardening, it was thought that orchids were very strange plants in that they formed a partnership with fungus mycelium in the soil - now we know that over 90% of plant families form partnerships with fungi, and by digging you damage the mycelium. So no more double digging every winter!

How do you make yourself love it? By thinking what you are doing and observing the results - that will at least make it interesting, and you can't love anything if it isn't interesting. Not just standing at your window and seeing whetehr the garden becomes a riot of colour, but looking at individual plants, watching the shoots unfold, the petals drop and be replaced by seedheads, the leaves change colour in autumn, which plants drop their leaves in winter, and which drop their leaves a few at a time over the year.

@meredintofpandiculation I think tackling one small bit is good advice. I was thinking of doing what I did at work when I didn't want to get started and set myself a small achievable target. So sorting weeds in a metre long stretch might be a start.

I was thrilled to see that I don't actually need to dig it all over! You may have just saved me. Next doors raspberries come into my garden. Would I need to try to dig those up though?

Some friends have given me plants so I do have things to get going with and I have bulbs to go in. Dry forecast tomorrow... Here I go!