Gardening Virgin - what do I do?

[wishinwaitinhopin]

So I have never, in my life, done any gardening. But I am now a SAHM and it has come to my attention that I have a large garden at the front and back of my house! Sooooo....

If I go to the shops now what are the essentials I need? (Cheap as poss please)

And if I plant something now what will give me the quickest results?

I'm in a similar position. We've started by putting up a fence and putting in a lawn.

What have you got to work with? And what would you like to grow? I'm doing a mix of fruit and veg, and flowerbeds. I love the gardening boards on pinterest for simple and cheap ideas.

If you are new to it you want as low maintenance as possible and if you want to grow things to eat just grow what you need we end up with gluts of stuff that I spend hours prepping for the freezer then it just takes up space. Hardy herbs are an absolute must though if you are a cook, Rosemary and Tyme in particular. Also we like to only grow things we don't have to replace and we like to grow fragrant plants. So we have things like roses, honeysuckle and jasmine and then things like geraniums for color. We have a few fruit trees too and also grow salad leaves and soft herbs like basil and mint in the summer. Those last few would be ok to plant now and give results quickly I would think.

I just basically want it to look pretty (it currently looks like a wasteland). Fruit veg and herbs I hadn't even thought of. But that would be fab. I also wanted quick results.

I've started today! Inspired by hot weather. Been to a very cheap shop and bought a spade and shears. And some gloves and some packets of seeds that say "easy to grow just throw!"

Been out for about fifteen mins removing dead stuff. Bloody hell it's hard work!

I'm going to try and tackle our lawn over the next few months. Its spilling over on to the path and is patchy. There's also a shillied area which is covered in weeds.

I'm in need of tips too!

First thing you want to do is go round any friends who enjoy gardening and ask for advice. It's a good time of year for splitting clumps of plants so hopefully this will result in free plants coming your way.

Sweet peas are pretty easy and you can buy little pots of them in the garden centre. Whack a few tall canes in a circle, tie at top wit string, then circle the string down the canes to the bottom. Stick sweet peas in at the bottom of the canes. Make it child's job to pick the flowers in summer as the more you pick the more grow.

Have a look in Wilkinson's , Lidl, Aldi and the poundshop to see if they have any cheap roses to put in. They probably won't do much this year but will be good for the future. Cosmos is very easy to grow from seed and gives a good display for a good few months.

Lots of plant sales coming up soon so keep an eye out for those. Car boots and the market are good. Sunflowers will make a good impact this year, lavender worth having too. Have a look in the garden centre for little modules of rainbow chard, which is edible but can look pretty with the different colours.

Great ideas here I second markets and boot sales. I got a jasmine the other day for 2.50 and the garden centre had them for about 30! Another thing I like growing is chilies. The plants do well in pots, they look really pretty when they flower and if you don't use them all you just dry them in the sun and the seeds last years. I don't have a lawn so can't give you tips on that, well, I do but its fake, that saves us time so we can tend to the flowers and trees. Another thing is that you can use anything as a container as long as it has drainage holes in the bottom. I also like the idea of lavender and sunflowers and I'm going to look out for rainbow chard!