Novice gardening question.....

[Spidergirl8]

I realise this is probably a very silly question, but I know nothing about gardening!

I want to start trying to make an effort with my garden. I'm not going to do anything too ambitious but I'd like to have flowers during the months that it is possible. How can I ensure continuous flowering? Do I plant seeds/bulbs together that have a staggered blooming time? Eg- I love snakehead flowers but they only last until May. Would I plant another flower alongside it that would bloom in June/July? Is planting side by side or is that not good?

Any advice welcomed!

I found Kim Wilde's First Time Gardener book a really good book for offering tips on things. Do you have any family or friends who can divide some plants up for you? I have given away sedums, vinca major and geraniums which are a good starting point. Good luck with your garden. Mine faced a year of neglect last year due to studies. I'm ready to fall in love with it again this year.

Thanks for tips, I will look out that book. I've no one to offer cuttings, but I plan to buy some pots from garden centre. Have just planted some poppies from seed though!

I'd use a mixture of perennials (plants that come back every year), annuals (plants that die after one year- this includes most of the bedding plants in the garden centre) and bulbs to try and get continuos flowers. It will take a bit of experimentation to work out what grows well in your garden and when and how long things will flower for, but that's all part of the fun of gardening. Some good perennials to start with are penstemons (flower for ages, lots of lovely colours), primulas, geraniums, hemerocallis, knautia, hellebores (like shade), sea holly. Some annuals that are easy to grow from seed are poppies
, love in a mist, nasturtium, cosmos, sunflowers, poached egg plant, Californian poppies.

There are so many plants out there, have fun and experiment! You can plant them close together- you'll quickly find out if some are being over shaded by others.

If you don't want to spend a lot, I've got surprisingly good plants from morrisons of all places.