Starter tips for a complete newbie please?

[GuyMartinsSideburns]

Ok so maybe not complete newbie - I used to garden with my dad years ago. But in a nutshell - just moved into our first house with a good sized back garden and a shed at the bottom. Dh was diagnosed with cancer just before we moved in and I'm at the point now where I'd like my own space and a hobby I can get stuck in to when I don't fancy running. So I'd like to claim the shed, make some raised beds to grow veg in, somewhere to 'switch off' for a bit when I'm done with worrying.

I plan to clear out the shed (dh is already stockpiling wood for 'when' we get a wood burner) paint inside and out, find something for flooring and replace the door. I'd like it to be a potting shed that I can also sit and read etc in, if you get me. The kind of shed I've always wanted!

I have literally nothing to my name to garden with, no idea where to start etc so I was hoping for some pointers please? Maybe a list of 'beginners' things? I find I struggle now with the simplest of decisions and I'm feeling tired quickly so I need a bit of an idiots guide, so to speak!

Thank you very much indeed xx

Not necessarily wheelchair friendly, just wondered if there was an 'average' width to leave. I guess a couple of foot would do.

I'm sure dh would love a crack at building an archway, he has a habit of stockpiling any wood that looks 'handy' so he could prob knock something up on a good weekend perhaps.

Thanks for the well wishes, he's in later this evening and I'm going to miss him terribly. We've only just moved to the area and know no-one so I'm finding it somewhat lonely at the moment. This will all keep me busy! I'm going to measure the shed etc in a bit. Any greenhouse recommendations? I've got a small patio next to the shed I could use.

Golly! You are going to be busy!
Greenhouses are like archways : it is possible to spend a lot of money or very little!
Gabriel Ash and alitex are the top of the range and very nice
palram is middle and said to work well
plastic walk in ones are available for a song
one of the mums built her own from edwardian windows she got off a scrapyard

most people recommend getting as large a one as possible, Me I dont have a greenhouse because I know I wouldn't wash the windows and because sunshine through glass gives me migraine. But I would love a potting shed or an octagonal thingy

Also as the autumn is upon us what about a firepit/chimnea/woodburner thing? Assuming no one has asthma: I got a terrible asthma attack inhaling smoke from flames from a fire pit (mine of pathological features, me!)

What about a water feature/pond ? Could be raised, rectangular, or dug and natural shaped. The gardeners world website has some nice clips for projects!

I think it is important to set a budget and stick to it. I have a spreadsheet and so do some of the other mums. Mine has a wish list, a 'to plant' list and a 'flowering now' list. When the 'to plant' list grows too fast, I'm very stern and buy nothing. Also having a 'wish list' is very focussing when you are in a nursery or at a plant sale and decreases impulse buying.

Oh lovely ideas! I'd love a fire pit or something like that!

Archways - remember to use treated wood so it doesn't rot. And make it taller than you think - you need a long bit to stick in the ground ( dig a hole and concrete it in ) and remember that the plants that grow across the top will drape down a bit ( I assume that's the effect you want )

We live in a very windy place , so the uprights on ours are 4x4 and the cross bar is 2x4

Oh Guy, keeping yourself busy is such a great plan! It is hard going through the chemo, and doubly so when you don't know many people in the area.

I have 60cm walkways between my beds. I plant right up to the edges of them to make maximum use of the space and it is just enough. My compost bin is right at the end of my garden, well away from the house, in a utility area that also houses my shed, leaf mould and greenhouse, the last of which I bought earlier this year. I spent a long time going to flower shows and looking at different models and I eventually went for a Rhino, which is not one of the super-premium posh ones, but is quite a bit more than the basic models. We get strong winds here in the autumn, so I felt I needed the extra strength. It is incredibly practical, because the windows come in extremely tough safety glass, in very large sections, which are held into a sturdy aluminium frame with an innovative clip-in beading (as opposed to the wire clips that many models use). It's a very strong way of putting the glass together and prevents any wobble. I am the clumsiest person on earth and I haven't managed to break a pane yet. (This is a huge endorsement for its strength).

Instead of a fence, you could plant a small hedge along to separate the two gardening 'sections' - buying small trees is quite inexpensive, and they grow more quickly than you might think. You could even do a vegetative 'arch' rather than a wooden one (someone near me has a gorgeous hornbeam hedge which they have trained into a arch over their gate). It looks gorgeous and I want to do the same thing in my front garden. Alternatively, you could go for something like espalier apple trees, which would be productive as well as ornamental.

Oh some good ideas there, I shall look more into it when I feel a bit more keen than I do today, dh was admitted last night so today has been a bit weird. All going well he'll be home on Friday. I doubt il be doing anything 'big' for the foreseeable but it doesn't hurt to have some ideas and we've only lived here a month so seeing a few seasons here might be a good idea. Il definitely look into the hedge and archway ideas tho, they sound like what I have in mind.

I'm going to write today off and hope for an early night I think.

Many thanks x

I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed for your DH! It will be strange without him for a few days, especially in a new place. Be gentle to yourself and just do things when you feel like it. There's no rush! The garden will still be waiting for you in the spring, even if you do very little all winter.

It really is good to see how the light falls in different seasons before making really big decisions. I'm in a city and on a hill and my garden is quite small, so the things that affect it are really complicated: all kinds of trees and buildings get in the way at different times of year, depending on the angle of the sun. I've been here six or seven years, and things still surprise me!

A word of caution about smoky things too - wood smoke is not at all good for the ole lungs and best avoided in anyone who has a compromised immune system or any kind of cardiac or pulmonary issues. I'm not saying don't have a fire, just to think carefully about smoke as an issue. Gosh, I can't believe I am typing this. I am turning into my mum!! Sorry!

No don't mention it, it's nice to feel a bit mothered at the moment

Il def keep that in mind though, feel like I want a scrap book or something so I can be placing things and moving them about etc lol I don't feel like I've got the energy to do much at all at the moment. Il perk up when he's home xx

Hey - how about taking some pictures of the garden - doesn't have to be anything fancy, but they could be your 'before' shots that you show people so that they can go 'WOW - what a transformation!' in a couple of years. It's so easy to forget what it was like before, and so nice to be able to show people. You could make an album on pinterest!

I take lots of pictures of my garden. They look quite repetitive - largely from the same angles - but they aren't really for public consumption but to remind me where everything is. By August, I will have forgotten where the snowdrops are planted. In February, I won't remember where a perennial that dies right back to the soil is located. The pictures help me plan and occasionally I even remember to consult them before putting a spade into the soil and savaging a host of dormant daffodils!

Sorry to hear about your Dh. I can recommend Pinterest as a very large scrap book .

You can search for anything you like - hedges, gates, blue flowers , evergreen shrubs, paths, patios , containers , ornaments, fountains and make boards for each of them . As well as collecting loads of pictures of gardens that appeal to you but you're not quite sure why . After a while you will see a theme and elements you like.

That's how I worked out what I wanted for my garden, when I redesigned it two years ago . I even collected photos of gardens I didn't like , to help me work out what I did like ( if that makes sense ) .

So I worked out I don't like bitty planting or what's called " new perennials" , which is lots of grasses planted with selected herbaceous plants .Or most garden ornaments. Or fences . Or pink and yellow together .

< hard stare at hosta turning yellow in front of pink hydrangeas >

Don't think too hard about why you like a pin - just collect lots and lots and put them on separate boards . You'll need hundreds to see a clear pattern .

I rarely search for pins now, I just follow people whose boards I like and all the nice pins come to me without my doing anything < lazy>

Just putting in a word for wallflowers as they make a wonderfully colourful and cheerful display that outlasts spring bulbs and they have a delightful scent.

Buy bare root plants from eBay or garden centres - Tom Thumb and Persian Carpet are my favourites - and plant in tubs or beds before planting spring bulbs, otherwise you may slice the bulbs in half with the trowel when putting the wallfowers or other plants in.

I've found violas with their sweet little faces to be more resistant to slugs and snails than pansies and a half a dozen in a tub with forget-me-nots tucked around them always brings a smile to my face. By way of a change, this year I've bought trailing violas for the baskets that hang outside my kitchen door which I usually store in the shed in winter - I'm hoping the squirrels won't perform their usual acrobatics and dig them up.

If they haven't sold out, you'll find a reasonable selection of spring bulbs in 99p and £ shops; place in groups of 3 in tubs/beds otherwise the resulting display can look regimented. As soon as Christmas is over there's usually a whole aisle devoted to gardening equipment, plants, and solar lights to illuminate your handiwork.

Runner beans grow themselves and I love their bright red flowers. Save a bed for strawberries, raspberries, and a few gooseberry bushes if you like the fruit in pies/puddings - and save old net curtains or buy them in charity shops to keep the birds off the precious crops.

Gardening is a very rewarding hobby and much pleasure can gained from poring over plant and seed catalogues during the bleak winter months.

Hello, hope all is going well with your DH and of course you. Its hard being on the sidelines and having to be strong, its tiring and stressful.
If you want a shed and a greenhouse, maybe a thought on one thats a bit of a hybrid. On our allotment thread, one of the lovely people on there bought a shed come pottting shed with big windows all along the front, it may be worth a thought :).
If money is a bit tight, don't forget to look on gumtree , or your local fb selling site - greenhouses/sheds are often for sale
Also , if you want to seperate the vegetable area, step over fruit trees may be worth a thought

Many thanks for the further replies and well wishes. I appreciate all of it very much. I'm doing ok, just find Im spending my days 'sitting tight' so to speak. I feel knackered but haven't done anything to make me tired.

Lots more for me to think about. I will def do photos! Unless I start feeling a bit more energetic it may all have to wait. I guess a bit whenever is better than nothing. Il def get back on Pinterest too, my main board on there at the moment is my Guy Martin one

Ooh plant and seed catalogues! Il have a look x

So sorry about your dh's dx, and I hope he copes with the chemo OK. I have one friend who found chemo fairly easy, and another - who is having it atm - is finding it hard (but he's 70 and has been left for months just getting sicker and sicker and more and more weak, so not comparable to your dh).

Anyway, I was going to suggest you find a local gardening club. There's bound to be one.

When it comes to choosing plabts, see what other people in your area are growing, what looks good and seems to be growing well and what seems to be doing less well. This will give you a good idea of what sorts of things like your sort of soil.

Hello , just dropping in to wish you both well through the hospital admission

I second the wallflowers and also the pansies: pansies in pots flower for ages if they are deadheaded!

Pinterest can be a two edged sword because whilst amazing, at the end of the day with gardens one has to go out there and do stuff. DS and I were saying only this evening that if we look at the computer before we do stuff in our day we are much less likely to get around to doing stuff till the sun has gone in!

So make sure to plant a pot or two! I see nothing wrong with going to the garden centre or b and q or idl or aldi and getting whats in flower and planting it in a pot ( with some spring bulbs underneath to come up in the spring!

Which reminds me: lasagne planting in pots means you put tulips underneath, about a foot down, then scilla, crocuses and snowdrops and then your flowers like wallflowers and pansies in the top layer!

In the spring when the pansies are over, your snowdrops will flower then your crocuses then your wallflowers and daffs: easy!

Sometimes its nice to have a shrub in the centre of that pot: for example sarcococcus smells sweet and flowers early, so too does daphne, or you could have a winter flowering camellia sasanqua or mahonia

I like the idea of a living arch

Thank you

Had an appointment this morning that I'd been dreading so I treated myself to a couple of weekly gardening magazines! Thought I might chill over those this evening. I get a bit 'information overload' though and then I just want to run off.

Im looking forward to seeing how my bulbs come up in the spring (if they do) I've got one of those long pots (technical aren't i) and in that I planted some tulip bulbs along the back (can't remember the name, dd chose them) and some primroses along the front edge. One of the other large round pots I bought I planted 3 hyacinth bulbs in, and then some kind of daffodils around them. God I'm clueless aren't i

I still haven't got any plans on paper mil asked me what I wanted for Xmas, think I might ask for gardening bits. Hoping to get raised beds ordered from somewhere this weekend and then I can at least be digging etc.

Am def going to look for a gardening club. Id never have thought of that so thanks x

Don't worry about not having plans on paper, you have all winter to do that .
The bulbs and winter bedding in pots will give you some colour over the dark months and they are pretty foolproof

Just make sure they don't get water logged if we get a lot of rain , you need holes in the bottom and sit them on something that allows water to drain away

And if it's very cold ( I mean well under freezing ) , move them somewhere a bit more sheltered , like next to the house until the eaves . They don't mind cold in the ground but you don't want to whole pot to freeze

Other that that, they are pretty foolproof . After the bulbs have flowered , feed them , deadhead them and leave the leaves on for 6 weeks .

The winter bedding will repeat flower if you feed and deadhead religiously

I'm sorry about your Dhs health problems - I can vouch for the therapeutic benefit of gardening . Much healthier ( and usually cheaper ) than fags or booze for dealing with stress

I remembered to raise the pots up on blocks! At least that's something and just as well considering how much rain we had yesterday.

I'm enjoying reading all of your posts, it's all very exciting x

Blocks! You are indeed organised and vair posh! I sling some bits of gravel underneath 'em

For most of this year I have been putting all my spare time, creativity , energy and money into my garden , to cope with an unhappy family situation which I cannot fix ATM. I have stopped clothes shopping ( which didn't make me happy ) and bought plants, which has.

Of course, I will run out of space in the garden soon and my knickers have holes in them. But I don't care . My garden will give me pleasure long after the clothes would have been consigned to the charity shop .

I got my raised bed from Amazon and the peat to fill it too. Very convenient, a man just brings it to your door, no heavy lifting!

It was lovely having it, and I grew tons of tomatoes in it, but it needed digging over and the compost needed feeding for the second year, and sadly I couldn't do it. So now it sits sadly at the end of the garden full of weeds.

I think I may need a rotovator. I could probably manage one of them if it's not too heavy.

Jux - do you mean you are not fit enough to dig it? If so, a rotovator might be quite hard to manage .

What about spending the rotovator money on some help in the garden ? If you just need a bit of heavy lifting / digging and no gardening skill and your could supervise them , you might be able to hire someone's teenager for a few hours .

M0rven, yes I have ms and am v weak with no stamina! I can manage the lawn mower in short bursts, so I thought a small rotovator might be the answer.

I shall ask dd about strong teens thank you!