Complete novice here!

[BirthdayKake]

I'm sick of our garden having no colour. I painted this huge wooden planter thing that the previous owners left, but I want to put some pretty flowers in there!

How do I do it?! Can't spend a fortune... Thanks!

How much can you afford? It wouldn’t be too expensive to buy a few plants from the garden centre. You could also put in some seeds but they take a while to come up

In June I could afford a little more - probably up to £40-50 just for flowers.

I saw loads in the garden centre but I'm not sure what to do with them? Do I take them it of their pots and just put them in the soil in that planter?

I do have a bag of compost from my old house. Should I put a bit of that in there first?

I'd go for bedding. It's a pricier option but it's not a huge space so your budget should be OK. Great situation for it - the raised bed will really show them off

Yes, you can add compost. I'd spread on an inch or two and fork it in a bit. Buy some fertiliser too - I'd look for slow release, just follow the instructions on the packet.

Planting - water the plants well about an hour before so the rootballs come out whole from the pots and plant. Water in well and keep moist.

Thank you! What is bedding?

From the internet: a bedding plant is a plant set into a garden bed or container when it is about to bloom, typically an annual used for display and discarded at the end of the season.

If you go to your local garden centre, there's usually a section called "bedding plants". There should be plenty of colours and flowers to choose from. Take a look at the care symbols on the plant labels, eg choose sunny plants if your planter is in sun all day.

Bedding is an expensive way to buy ready made seasonal plants, they will only last this season.
add your compost.
You could buy some annual flower seeds for about 2 - 3 pounds.
just read the packets to find ones that you can sow straight into the bed, easier for beginners. sow them in clumps, when they come up thin them.
you could also put a couple of perrenials (thats things that grow in the summer and die back in winter but return every year)
I would put some tall perrenials in the centre and lower growing stuff around the edge. with some trailing plants to come down over the edges it would look good.

Right ok. Will go and look soon. When I say no colour, there really was no colour until I had the turf laid down! It was just gravel

Do you want instant colour or could you wait to grow from seed? Lidl, aldi, wilko, diy stores, supermarkets have bedding plants relatively cheaply atm. However if you can wait a bit you can buy ready mixed seeds, such as Miracle Gro, which you sprinkle into soil and water. Maybe pick a colour palette and do a mixture of both for an extended season.

Bedding - many of the bright, colourful flowers you see in the summer, particularly in hanging baskets. They flower their hearts out over a long summer season i.e. several months.

Examples - petunias, begonias, busy lizzies, lobelia, french and african marigolds but there are many more. They'll usually be grouped together at garden centres so you can browse them.

Instant colour would be good! Does Miracle Gro take a while?

When you're reading the labels on bedding plants, do note the instructions about how far apart to plant them - you won't need as many as you think to fill your planter because once they're in they'll grow outwards as well as up.

I agree with Liz about choosing a colour scheme and with myidentity about the different heights.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'm very good at killing plants and flowers so would like to improve this year!!

If you see any I'd recommend bacopa ,bidens , verbena,nemesia - these are bedding plants and have quite a lot of foliage( so fill up space nicely ) plus loads of flowers .
Bit more robust and less prone to getting eaten by snails and slugs and I think ( tho may be wrong ) don't wilt as quickly as petunias .

Oh and geraniums ! These are lovely and will flower and flower ,different types ivy leaf trailing and upright .

I'm still learning too OP and have found
Pieris mountain fire, (new growth is gorgeous red leaves)
Hebe - mainly purple ones
Saxifrage (sp!) gorgeous pink red and white flowers
Vinca major and minor - purple
Marguerite - White daisy's
Ivy
Lavender
Periwinkle - purple flower
Viburnum Tinus
Pachysandra - White flower

all to be tolerant of my not so green fingers!

Ive found local garden centres tend to be cheaper than national chains

You won't need too much in there to make it look amazing, maybe 10 - 15 plants although that will look pathetic when you first buy them they like the space for their roots to grow and they spread loads.

Try petunia surfinia and/or Lobelia around the edges as they trail so will look really good then maybe a couple of geraniums in the middle. busy Lizzy (inpatiens) are great if it is a fairly shady spot but they are less happy in full sun.

They look very small to start with then one day its just like the colour all bursts out and you'll have a beautiful display.

If you dead head the plants every couple of days or so they will keep on going for much longer, thats simply pulling off the flowerheads that have died.

Ps I lean toward evergreen plants

Miracle Gro Flower Magic takes 6 weeks according to the container. Enough to cover 4m2 so it would do your flower bed plus some pots.

Ah, yes - slugs and snails - particularly if you go for bedding.

OK - also buy a roll of adhesive copper tape - stick it round the trough at the top of the sides. It gives the blighters electric shocks(!) Or buy a bag of horticultural grade grit (NOT gravel). After planting, spread a layer of a few millimetres over the surface of the soil - right up to the plant stems. Slugs and snails don't like the sharp edges and it also acts as a mulch - suppressing weeds and deterring water evaporation.

Good luck!

I would put a whole bag of compost in there and fork it in.
Begonias and geraniums are easy to grow and don’t mind it a bit dry if you forget to water them. Then you could put seed in between the plants for more colour later in the summer. Try calendula. They are lovely. Now is the right time to sow them.
If you want a bit of height stick some sunflower seeds in at the back. You can get dwarf ones.
You could also,out in some perennial seeds that might not flower this year but will next year. Try things like aguilegea, Daisies, dwarf foxgloves, perennial geraniums. All will flower each year.

I love your list chishandfips - lots of evergreen plus won't need replacing next year !
I'm always planting ivy and having to remove it after a couple of years because it gets so big and it's roots fill up the container .
OP's container is big but I'm moving over to nepeta

If money is tight, there is no need to spend that much. I would stick with a blue white and yellow theme for your planter. My plan would be to rake it over plant some white alyssum at irregular places . A tray of bedding Alyssum is about £4- £6. Then I would scatter seeds, nasturtium, Nigella, Calendula, California poppy, Lavetera or any annual seed you like the look of. Buy a very big bag of vermiculite and cover the seeds with this. I would also buy lots of pea sticks from the £1 shop, break them in half and poke them in. This will stop the cats using the planter as a toilet, alternatively use chicken wire. Keep watered and you will see plants emerging in a week or so and flowers in about a month.

If you want some plants to hang down the side then trailing lobelia is cheap. Things like Bacopta last all summer if you keep chopping away at the dead bits. For instant colour, you could sow fewer seeds and plant things like busy lizzy or marigolds. These are quite reasonable.

The other alternative is to make it a herb garden. lemon Balm, ginger and chocolate mint, lavender, rosemary and lots of creeping thymes would be good. This would cost about £20. It you do that I would also buy some gravel to go in between the plants.

I wish some of you lot could come over and help! I'm also attempting to renovate other areas of the house, plan a wedding in three months and look after four DC so my head is everywhere at the minute! :)

If I could have a perfect job it would be like “Nanny 911” . Except I would be “Gardener 911”. Just like the tv programme, I would swoosh in, Bish, bash, bosh and make it look so easy. Then I would depart and leave the real work to everyone else.

These are bedding plants in pots from last year. Great for colour! I'm just starting this year's pots and baskets today

Bedding plants will give you colour for this year, but over the summer keep an eye out for plant stalls at fetes. These often have perennial plants from local growers, so you know they like the environment and are cheap.
The other good place are the sad plant section in garden centres. These are often the plants that haven’t grown so well, but often do better with a little care, in your own garden.