Help for a beginner!

[TheBlindspot]

Hello gardeners!

I am having my garden completely overhauled next month. We've been in our home for four years and all we've got at the moment is a horrible old patio and big sloping lawn but horrible grass. So, we're having the following done:

New patio
Lawn dug up, levelled and new lawn laid
Decking area in the corner
New fence and gate
Borders put around the lawn

I need a bit of help, please, with what to put in the borders! I have literally not a clue about gardening. I'm looking for her some plants like small bushes that don't need much looking after to dot around, and then some colourful pretty flowers too.

If I start to know what I'm doing I might look to get some big pots too, but one step at a time!

We're having to front done at the same time, and again will have borders.

We have sun at the front of the house in the morning and the back in the afternoon.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks in advance!

Any idea how high and deep you want your planting to go?

Are there any areas that are always or never shaded?

Do you have any colour preferdnces? Are you a sophisticated "white garden" type like my aunt, or a "as many colours per square inch" type like me?

Fabulous shrubs I have not managed to kill include

Weigela (spring flowers, many colours available, needs a good prune after flowering, gets quite tall so I wish my predecessor here hadn't put it in front of the kitchen window) seems happy with only some sun.

Potentilla fruticosa (many shades but I like yellow, absolute sun lover, flowers all summer and needs no attention)

Spiraea (shorter flowering but wow factor, generally pinks and whites, needs one good early spring haircut. Another sun fan.

Plants for low maintenance Hebe, Holly, Ferns, Heathers, cotoneaster, lavender, Rosemary Berberis, thyme, Lemon Balm.and ornamental grasses.

Good place to buy is Wilko.

Best place for ideas is Pinterest. Make a mood board of things you like and you will find that the same things keep popping up. If you like something , but uncertain what it is, you can post on here for identification.

Pots can be high maintenance. You need to ensure they're getting enough water plus the nutrients can get sucked out of the soil pretty quickly.

When planting try to put shrubs to the back of the border and you can then plant annuals ( plant every year- tends to die once frosts come ) You can buy plants that will give you year round interest, spring flowers and then summer bedding. These tend to need watering as shallow roots. Perennials are plants that grow, and then die back before 're growing the next year. Try to get a mix of everything. Buy a good gardening book that will give you all the info you need, showing you plants and care of them, different composts, planting guides etc. Once you get hooked and create your new garden, you will find out what grows best in what position. Just enjoy it and have fun.

I'm starting from scratch in a huge garden having never had a garden before ( except a little city courtyard)
Paths and patios done last year and now it's planting time.
What I'm finding is having a sort of theme is helping me
I live rurally in an old cottage so I'm choosing country garden style plants and flowers.
For me this is much more simple as I can get inspired on youtube or pinterest on just 'cottage gardens' rather than the minefield of planting per se.
Good luck, I've had a few successes and a few failures and enjoying it all greatly

I'm really looking forward to getting started! I'm a SAHM with a toddler so I should have lots of time to be out in the garden with her over the summer.

Most of the garden is in the sun all afternoon. We used to have huge ash trees running behind our back fence but had to have them taken down because they weren't safe so we have very little shade now.

Hmm, maybe not pots this year then. Maybe next year when I know what I'm doing a bit more.

I think that, with a toddler, you should not have pots. The less things for them to bang their heads on the better.

Also at the end of April I would get your toddler to help plant nasturtium seeds. They are nice a big for a little one to handle. You can put the. Straight into the ground or plant in yogurt pots until they are a few inches tall. It is an easy way for her to learn about gardening.

Oh you must get some snapdragons (antirrhinums) : grow from seed indoors now, or buy as bedding plants from May.

One of my fondest memories of my toddler was his belly-laughs watching the bees going into the snaps, and coming out again.

Also sunflowers are great fun for tinies.

I would take it reasonably slow with your planting: put in a few big things and fill spaces with annuals. ALWAYS read the label and believe what they say about ultimate size.

Have you thought about ornamental trees to replace the lost ashes? A lovely cherry tree, or similar?

Ooh, I'm planning my new front border-trying to decide if we should dig up & level the lawn or make do. Low maintenance stuff can be so dull - I hate hebe. But I love
Mexican feathergrass
Rudbeckia
Echinacea
Verbena
Alliums
Agapanthus
Sedum
achillea

Google them all & good luck!

We can't replace the ashes unfortunately. They weren't actually on our property but on our boundary - we'd applied to have them cut back as they were absolutely enormous and overhanging our garden massively so we'd had agreed to split the cost with the management company responsible for the land. When the tree surgeons came they discovered that they'd been damaged terribly by squirrels and one of them was getting in for hollow. All unsafe so they had to go. I was really sad, I loved them!

Don't really want to put a tree into our garden - there was one last ash that was actually on our property but we had that removed too. That one was safe but it was so big and old that the roots were lifting the patio. We don't want to fork out for a lovely new garden for tree roots to wreck it in years to come.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far - I'm making a list!

Sunflowers are such a nice idea I loved growing them as a child.

I'm not fussed about it being all sophisticated- I like things colourful and pretty in gardens. My gran used to have huge beds of marigolds when I was small and although I wouldn't want as much as that I remember them being so bright and lovely.

band q or homebase for cheap bright colour and often good advice from the garden staff

Verbena boniaris - fabulous sun lover, back of bed.

I have many rose campions that flower all summer long and I can split a plant into about 10 for the following year.

Hostas and ferns for your shady spots

Aquilegia - many colours self seeders

bearded iris - love full sun

I'm a big perrenial fan but you will have a very empty winter garden as everything goes underground for the winter.

Liatris are fab - another great one for splitting to make more plants.

Poeny - expect no flowers for the first couple of years.

Really you need to decide what sort of garden you want to achieve, modern, cottage, seaside, grasses and get some books for the library and make a list of the plants you like.

Aldi and Lidl are getting all there garden stuff back in again. I've gotten some great bulbs there.

Compost all in at lidl yesterday - £1.49 for 20l so good value if you do for some pots or start anything from seed.

I WILL get our garden sorted this year. Just need to get this big work project out of the way and its on my hit list.

My aunt’s advice was to go to the garden centre once a month and buy whatever is flowering and then by the end of the year you will have a garden that has interest all year. I’m sure there was a bit more thought to it but she does have a lovely garden now.

I'm having trouble posting on here..not sure why but Google Alan titmarsh family garden for some good advice

Plant flowering shrubs in your borders. You will need to water them this year as they will be young plants but next year they should be able to look after themselves

I’d seriously think about a small tree, it’s so lovely for the birds, adds height and structure in the winter.

Small trees like sorbus (a small Rowan tree). Crab apple or small flowering cherry would be perfect. Ask at a nursery for advice.

Also plant lots of bulbs and leave a bit is space for herbs. Rosemary and bay are easy, make great shrubs, and it’s lovely picking your own

Dont plant your borders until the risk of frost has passed. .so april/may. Until then add some soil improvers.
Hydrangea is indestructible. ..lots of nice flowers.

Mock orange, weigela, roses (worth spending extra to get thornless ones)
Fill the gaps with annual seeds until they fill out. ..if you buy ones aimed at kids you are pretty safe they will grow
I like stocks, Nigella, corn flowers. Chuck them.on bare soil and you will have flowers 8 weeks later
To interest children in gardening. ..sunflowers are good, also Strawberries (buy plants in may), they will spread and give you ground cover

I'm currently helping my DM with her garden. She doesn't want a dedicated kitchen garden area but would like the produce (particularly with rising food prices) and so we are using edibles like normal plants and dispersing them throughout the garden.

Along those lines, can I suggest a rhubarb plant? Not necessarily your first thought but if you stick it in a corner you will get lovely big green leaves, red stems and delicious rhubarb for years and years to come. Don't take the stalks for the first year so that it has a chance to get established first and then you can literally just leave it. Lots of crowns around at the moment in the shops. I started a kitchen garden last year and throughout the winter my parsley and rosemary have remained green and attractive and as a pp has said, it is so nice to be able to pick and use your own (and saves a fortune). The tender herbs such as coriander need more attention so might not be the best option straight away. Asparagus is also pretty and again, once its in the ground you will have asparagus for years. The tops are all wispy like an ornamental fern.

Think about some Autumn colour too. Sedums ( ice plant) are very hardy low growing and produce lovely pink clusters in Autumn with the seed heads attracting birds into winter.

Often neighbours and friends are able to give bits of plants they’ve grown and divided, that way you’ll know they’ll grow in your soil type.

Another thing to consider is contrast foliage, either by colour or texture. I love black elder for this.

www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/s12265-sambucus-nigra-black-lace-black-elder-sambuca-plant?gclid=Cj0KCQiAoY7VBRDtARIsAHWoO-I2YsSIYWtAaqbNcYv_EOiIFjoh2XUlyK7mA75pNbZ9vIA6BDFn1FcaAiaIEALw_wcB

Really dramatic, lovely in flower, and a great contrast the rest of the season.