New garden and not a clue what I’m doing!

[Sunshine49]

Hello everyone! I recently moved to a new house and now have a back garden for the first time. It measures about 18 feet wide by 45 feet long. There’s a small patio near the house, a few raised beds and the rest of it it lawned, with flower beds either side and a pond.

I’m super excited to finally have a garden but also a little daunted - I have absolutely no idea how to look after it or what to do. I recently bought a plant app to help me identify all the different plants, as a start.

So my first question (which I’m sure will be the first of many!) is what do I do with my campanula? As you can see from the photos, it’s spread out of the flower bed and all down the wall, and is also growing out the middle of the wall at one point. Is that how it’s meant to be, or should I trim it back to neaten it up? If so, how do you trim it without killing it? (Told you I was clueless!)

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

Once it has finished flowering go over it with shears. Cut it back half way. Usually, but not always you will get a second flush of flowers in late summer. Then in late October cut it back to about 4 - 6 inches. If you like it then do nothing else, but, If it is too much you can dig some out by the roots and plant elsewhere, or discard. This will stop the plant getting congested .

You can cut it back to about 15cm without harming the plant.

More importantly than buying new plants at this stage is to tidy up (you may find a few surprises that have been hidden away) and improve the soil.

I would leave doing anything with the lawn until autumn, just keep it mown until then.

Can you post a picture or two of the pond to show its condition?

Hi both, thanks for your replies! The pond (photo attached) is about 6.5 feet long by 4.5 feet wide and 3 feet deep. We’ve just had it drained, fixed and refilled as there was a hairline crack near the bottom, which meant it was losing water. Now it’s super clear - almost swimming pool-like! We’re getting the pump fixed next week so the water feature will start working again. No idea what to do with it after that though Do I need to put some plants in there?

It looks like a pond that was originally intended to keep specimen fish. If you want to continue that I would advise going to a specialist supplier who can recommend stock and the best way to treat and oxygenate the water.

If you would prefer to have plants, the pond would look a lot better if you repainted the inside a more natural colour, say dark green or brown.

Establishing different levels below the water's surface by various means will enable you to grow different aquatic plants whilst still being able to see the movement and reflections from the water. When choosing plants try to resist using invasive ones since they will quickly overrun this small pond.

Lastly, remember you can add a great deal to the overall appearance of a feature like this with sympathetic planting around the outside to soften the effect of the hard edges and add overall impact.

You can beat the everlasting crap out of that campanula and it will come roaring back in spring. I am forever tearing it up by the bucketload, and it still grows everywhere.

Haha thanks Mrs Bert - that is good to know and makes me feel a lot less nervous!

Victoria - yes, I believe the previous owners did keep some nice fish in there. I’d love to have some fish swimming about and was thinking of buying maybe five or six goldfish. Is there anything I’d need to do to the pond in advance do you know, or can I just put them straight in?

I’d also love to get some lilypads as I think it would look so pretty! Are they fairly easy to introduce and look after (and would they even work in a pond like this)?

Thanks so much for all the helpful tips!

You will need to get some water plants for your pond, so that the fish can hide from Herons! They spot fish from cloud level!
If your not intending to have a natural pond, where you let nature take its course, tadpoles, newts and the like, I’d find your local aquatic centre and get some advice on planting and fish.
If you have children or have them visit, you might get a mesh grid to cover the pond, for safety.
As PP has said some creeping plants around the edge would soften it.
It all sounds great fun, gardening is about experimenting.

A quick few comments about the pond

1. pond plants, they will need to be on bricks etc to lift them up as the pond is quite deep
2. water quality - before adding fish, you need the pump running and plants in for a week or so to get rid of chlorine and settle it all down
3. for a healthy pond, you need about 70% of the water surface covere din plant leaves/shaded, otherwise you'll get too much algal growth
4. yes of course you can stick goldfish in, they are remarkably robust, but get the plants etc sorted first. BUT if there is a heron around, he may eat your fish! To help this get a piece of piping to stick on the bottom, or a low shelf for the fish to hide under. The shading plants help
5. fish and water lilies don;t mix as the fish dig up the roots, to get round this, plant the water lily in a pot, then wrap the pot in chicken wire with small enough holes to stop the fish, the water lily leaves grow up through the holes and the fish can't dig the roots. Water lilies do need to be planted at the right depth.