Gardening for beginners

[Hogterm]

We have recently moved to a house and now have a garden for the first time ever. It's quite shaded currently due to a large tree but is south facing. We will be getting an extension done so can't do too much yet or it will be wasted but was thinking of planting tulips, bluebells and snowdrops.

Made me realise that I know nothing about gardening so wondered if there are any good gardening for beginners books which say what should be done when or tell you which plants are easy for beginners. Or websites?

Any recommendations of where to start?

Alan Titchmarsh's How to be a Gardener is always recommended on here

The programmes are (or were) on YouTube but the quality isn't great.

There are some lovely books, have you seen 'Short Cuts to Great Gardens: A Practical Guide to Low-Maintenance Gardening
'?
I have bluebells which are lovely and last ages but they are also very dominant and pushed other plants out until I realised I had to pull them out. Monty Don said I shouldn't but otherwise I couldn't have anything else in the border.

Also snowdrops, though lovely, are a bit hit and miss when planted from bulbs. They are more reliable planted 'in the green' - I'm testing this theory this year based on previous years' failures

Oh thank you for the tips. I will look for those books and videos.

Any other ideas of pretty flowers that are easy to grow and go well under trees?

Chionodoxa are lovely early flowerers, we have a load in our front lawn mixed with snowdrops. The snowdrops flower first then the chionodoxa (blue) and finish in time for mowing. Plant bulbs in the autumn.

Fritillaries might like it under your trees. Or primrose. We have oceans of primrose under apple trees.

The primroses just turned up, by the way. First year we were here there were maybe half a dozen. Now there are just masses. The most lovely heart-lifting sight on a chilly spring morning.

I did put more chionodoxa among them but someone ate the flowers. Bloody wood pigeons I think.

Do you plant them on the lawn then? We have a sort of lawn which is mainly moss and mud patches

The bulbs for snowdrops chionodoxa (And crocus too) I just wrinkled in with a narrow fork thing and watered and trod in. Never planted primrose, they turned up on their own, but you could easily plant 3 or 4 from a garden centre and let the go.

I use lawn improver with weedkiller (sold in pellets in a big box in eg Wilkos) to bring my lawn from waist high weeds with some grass to moss and weeds and grass (after cutting It all back) to now mainly lawn. Not sure what it does to bulbs though!

Bluebells are lovely, but make sure you get the English variety (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) rather than the Spanish ones (Hyacinthoides hispanica). The English ones are a deeper blue and also more fragrant. However, the primary reason is that the two species interbreed, producing a hybrid. If this process continues, the deep blue carpet of bluebells that is such a magical sight in the springtime will be lost forever.

Sorry, the words came out in a bossy way! I meant to say "be aware of..." and "consider buying..."

Haha I didn't read that as bossy. Useful to know thanks as was not aware.