The lass who neglected a cactus is no more...

[AllRoadsLeadBackToRadley]

Never did I EVER think I'd be browsing the gardening section!

We moved house in November, and, for the first time in my adult life I have a garden! Two, actually! Front and back!

One issue...I don't know how to garden!

I'm starting small. I've planted some spinach and rocket in planters, and some basil.

They. Will. Not. Be. Left. To. Die.

DH and the DC are pissing themselves- they know my history with house plants!

I actually own a gardening ebook now!

There are plants in the front garden already- lavender, and random ones which I have no clue of the species! Will I have to wait for the summer to identify them? Any experts out there fancy having a go if I post a few pics?

Oh, and I have three potatoes in an old box, which I'm waiting to sprout, before I plop them in an old sack and forget lovingly nurture them 😂

Hooray!

Yes post pics! Sounds like you're off to a good start

Alan Titchmarsh's How to be a Gardener always gets a mention on here as a straightforward beginner's guide. I've just googled and all the videos are free to view on Daily Motion (possibly YouTube too). The book is £2-5 on ebay secondhand - there are two volumes or one called The Complete How to be A Gardener which presumably combines both!

I bought a MINT book with a fuckload of swearing in it!

Let me go and sling some scraps at the DC and the dog (DS ate an Easter egg for breakfast at 5am...grrr!) And I'll post some pics!

Oh...please don't think I'm ignoring you about book suggestions- kindle is easier for me as I'm registered blind (10% vision) and I can make my phone big 😂

So...here's where I clog up MN with a load of photos! I'm not sure how to post multiple ones, so two at a time it is.

The trees at the back of the back garden. I have NO clue! DH thinks they're privet, but DD swears there's berries on them!

Yes privet. It can flower usually white) if left unpruned and produce berries. Next!

Aha there is a Kindle edition too!

I feel like I ought to be able to identify that hedge/tree/shrub, I'm going to wait for someone more knowledgeable

Keep posting pics in the meantime if you have more. Flowering season is coming up for a lot of things so they should reveal themselves soon if we get stuck

What's the mint book with the swearing?!

Congratulations! I'm on a similar boat, house build is almost completed but the half a bastard acre garden is a complete grass/muddy mess! DH has warned me not to concrete it all as he knows I'm not very 'green-fingered' (I once forgot to water a cactus and it deflated like a balloon!!) so I need some veeery low maintenance ideas!

Trying to post more pics, internet being a benk!

Our garden (back) is approx 15' by 40'. Not sure whether that's big?

The book is "how to grow, for gardeners who can't garden" I think. Hollie Newton.

Congratulations on your new garden! It’s the perfect time to start.
It’s often a good idea to spend the first year of owning an established garden to see what grows and keep notes. Also to become familiar with the perennial weeds that favour you garden, so you can pull them up as they grow and not ‘real’ plants.
At the moment you may have spring flowers and bulbs. If not make a note of what you would like and where you’d put them for next year.
You seem to have some small shrubs, try to identify and read up about them. Some will flower on last year’s stems, so you don’t want to be pruning them now.
Lots of lovely plants will only be emerging in the next month or so, wait and see what comes up.
Hope you have a lot of fun.

I think you're right- the best idea is to be patient!

I'd like a sort of kitchen garden, near the bbq area. What sort of area should I be looking at digging out?

For a small kitchen garden, I’d look at making raised beds, much easier!
There’s a thread on here at the moment on raised beds or Pinterest will give you ideas.
Unless you’re feeding a large family, a couple of beds 4x8 would do. Are you thinking of vegetables like beans, beetroot, lettuce and onions?
Potatoes take up a lot of room and small quantities are better grown in potato sacks.

Things like beans, and maybe pumpings?

PUMPKINS FFS!

Pumpkins need a lot of space, they have a rambling habit. It might not be worth the space, as you wouldn’t get a big crop!

IME the easiest and most useful plants to get you started are herbs - rosemary, bay, lavender, marjoram etc. Plant them next to your BBQ area and they will be close at hand to chuck on the food and look pretty and smell nice.

Vegetables are harder work, they need thinning out, watering, feeding. Neglect them and they either die or go to seed and become inedible. Salad leaves, carrots spring onions are probably the easiest.

I always plant fruit trees and bushes in my garden for the same reasons as the herbs, they are pretty to look at, productive and not a lot of work for good rewards.

Do you want flowers too or just edibles?

Do you think I have enough room for fruit trees?

I once fed my Venus flytrap a bit of McDonald's cheeseburger and killed it. Watching this thread with interest, nothing useful to add as I'm clearly useless 😬

There are quite a few miniature versions of fruit trees. Cherries, raspberries and other soft fruit have to be covered by net, to stop the birds getting them. Gooseberries are good fruit bushes, they like to be grown as a hedge. You could put them in an existing shrub area.

My garden is 6m x 12m and I have

2 apples
2 pears
1 plum
1 cherry
1 rowan
1 elderberry
1 hazelnut
3 gooseberry
1 redcurrant
3 blackcurrant
1 blackberry
1 tayberry
Loads of strawberries
Plus herbs, flowers, climbing roses, clematis and a small veg patch.

And stuff in pots.

DH likes lawn, but he is slowly losing

But quite a few of my fruit 'trees' are on dwarfing rootstocks and trained against the fences as espaliers and fans to save room. I'm quite happy pruning them, but if you aren't then stick to a standard on a dwarf rootstock. There are also 'family' apple trees available with several different varieties grafted together if you want a selection but can't spare the room.

I love trees though. My ideal garden would be a forest.

You guys are fucking ace! 😂

Courgettes are easy peasy and crop well, ditto runner beans.

Watch out for slugs demolishing carefully tended baby plants!

You can even espalier certain fruit trees against a wall/ fence for example to save space. No idea how technical this is as I've never done it!

Any clue what these are?

TBH I don't net anything. I probably lose some to the birds but I still get enough for myself. I'm not trying to be self sufficient or grow to sell. I just want a pretty garden and it's fun to pick stuff to eat with DD.

My garden was originally designed to be a wildlife garden, the first tree I planted was the rowan for the berries to attract birds. It has evolved into a productive garden over time but I still want the wildlife. I'm happy to share

What sort of garden do you think you would like to have AllRoads? It's worth having a think and a plan before spending £££ down the garden centre on whatever catches your eye I have never done that oh no never

Pic 1 looks like some rather sad lavender. We had a rather snowy winter and some varieties are quite tender (that means they don't like cold). It may recover, it may not.

Pic 2 The evergreen looks like prostrate (low and spreading) juniper. The white stuff is a bedding plant, I can't remember the name, sorry.