Help with my flower bed, total beginner

[Bobsterisback]

I know nothing about gardening or plants at all! But decided I want to try and make my small gsrden nice.

I have dug a flower bed sling one fence, I say dug more more just scraped the miss off the top as I didn't appear to have any grass in that area anyway and the area feels quite boggy and damp!

What do I need to do first before I even think about planting, do I need to work out what soil etc I have?

Moss

Ooooh, how EXCITING!!

First things to do:

• Work out what soil you have. If it's damp and mossy, I'm guessing you might be on clay.
• Work out whether there are any pH issues - you can run a cheap test from the garden centre (though many people skip this and just assume neutral until they know different!!)
• Work out your aspect (what way does the bed face, when does it get sun - moss thrives in shade so I would hazard a guess that it's not sun-baked)
• Dig in loads (and I mean LOADS) of compost, perhaps with a decent amount of horticultural grit to improve drainage if it feels boggy. Do not skimp on this step!!

Then you can get on to the exciting bit, which is choosing plants that suit your conditions and popping them in!! A good rule of thumb is to have a mixture of shrubs (some evergreen), hardy perennials, bulbs, ground cover (some evergreen) and annuals. Putting higher things towards the back of the border and lower things towards the front is a pretty classic design tip!