Where to start?

[jeweljelly]

Hello you Gardening Gurus, wondering if you can point me in the right direction. We have a decent sized north-facing garden that's a pretty near perfect rectangular shape with a little walled border area thing that has a few shrubs. We maintain the lawn but there's no colour anywhere and it looks boring and bleak! A few years ago we spent about £175 on bulbs and other stuff and planted in according to a plan provided, but we had a sudden hard frost and assume it killed everything as nothing ever grew. So my question is, where to start with this garden to try and pretty it up? I'm really not a gardener but willing to follow a plan so is there a book all seasoned gardeners recommend to novices like me, or should I just abandon all hope and buy some cheery flowers in pots??? We considered getting someone in to landscape and do it for us but, er, budget (actual lack thereof) says no. Is this the kind of advice/help a local horticultural club might provide? I have no idea. Help?

Hi, I'm just starting my gardening project and I started a thread yesterday asking for advice on colourful shrubs, I got some great ideas given to me, maybe have a read. I don't think I'd bother with bulbs, maybe more established plants/flowers.

Wyevale website is quite good as you can filter what plants you want for the aspect of your garden, so it will show you what will grow in north facing.

I just found your thread and will read through it, thanks. Also thanks for the tip about Wyevale. Good luck with your own project!

Can you get iPlayer, if so There's a program on there called the instant Gardiner - I'm watching that for ideas. I'm taking this gardening lark very seriously 😉

What is the soil like? I struggled in our garden until I started adding a lot of soil improver and compost. It’s so soul destroying to plant things and have them fail.

I’m surprised that nothing grew. Frost rarely kills bulbs under the soil. Is your soil clay? If so, then the bulbs probably rotted as clay retains water.
North facing gardens can be a challenge, having said that I have one as well. Two things I’d suggest that you could do immediately, one is to track the sun through the day and notethe time where the sun falls on the garden. When you’ve done this you can research the best plants for each position. For example some plants don’t like morning sun, some like dappled shade.
The other, is to dig sample holes and see what the soil is like. It probably needs improving with nutrition. I used whatever I could get cheap at the local garden centre, manure, soil improver and grow bags ( these were very cheap!)
Starting a new garden is fun, I hope you enjoy it.

Definitely soil improve with whatever you can. Add grass clipping to borders etc.

Climbers are great for adding a great garden feel, climbing hydrangea likes north facing walls.

If your soil is clay a bit of grit under each bulb helps them not to rot.

I would start with finding out what plants, colours, shapes etc you like. If you go to Pinterest and put ‘ Landscapes for North Facing Garden, you can pin the things that strike you. Also walk the streets looking at local gardens for inspiration.

Quite often you will find that a particular style or colour is emerging, a sort of garden mood board. You may like Pretty stuff, structured formal plants,shrubs, bedding flowers or maybe ornamental grasses.

It is very hard when you are new to gardening to know where to start. If a new gardener is asked “What do you want in your garden?, the reply, quite often is , “I don’t know what there is”.

So start with what appeals visually, then you can come back here for more specific advice. I had a garden make-over last year. Although I have gardened for 40 years, the advice on here was amazing and eye-opening.

I actually called it my MN garden, because so many plants were chosen from their advice