Novice gardener! What, if anything, can I start doing now?

[RhubarbRhubarbRhubarbRhubarb]

I really want to start gardening, but haven’t got the first clue where to start!

I have a smallish, south easterly facing garden, which is mostly lawn at the moment.

Can anyone wiser than I am please make any suggestions as to where I can start? I’ve googled “what to do in the garden in July” etc, but it’s all dead heading, watering etc. I would be starting completely from scratch, so that’s not really relevant to me.

Excuse the cluelessness!

Can you post some pics to give an idea of what you're up against ?

Any major stuff like digging or even weeding I think is jolly hard when things are hot and dry .

How about growing some things in pots? Get a few large pots (c. 30cm in diameter and make sure there are holes in the bottom. Buy some compost at fill the pots. Look around for some pre grown plants at a garden centre or if you live more rurally, lots of people sell them by their front doors. Tomatoes are good, peas will grow fast and give you a good return. Chance a runner bean (They grow tall!) or go for a floral display. Plant and then water. If you're planting veg, you'll need some canes and some wire to stake them up (so they have something to grow up as they can't support their own weight).

Water a lot especially when they are establishing.

Start in January 2019 planting seedlings and planning next year's garden! And maybe apply for an allotment if you want to grow more seriously. You should find lots of knowledgable souls who will share their experience.

I would start by finding what type of gardens you like. If you search Garden Landscapes on Pinterest lot of idea will come up. If you screen shot what you like, then a plan will start to form.

Usually colours are the easiest way to start, then whether you want low maintenance. Cottage gardens are busy looking and a lot of work. Grasses and ferns are peaceful, gravel gardens are simple to manage.

If you life grasses then check out Piet Oudolf.

Take your self off to the garden centre, and see what takes your eye. Just remember that this time of year new plants will need lots of water.

Thanks for this. I’m planning a trip to the garden centre tomorrow.

Here are some pictures, as requested, of my garden, in all its... ahem... glory. Please avert your gaze if you’re offended by neglected gardens .

A blank canvas is a great way to start. You don’t have to dig up plants. I would get yourself a squares pad and start making patterns.

You may just want a border all a round a rectangle, or curved shapes or something geometrical. I have a tiny oblong garden so wanted a bit of interest and different places to sit,

I would agree with buying shrubs and potting them now. Evergreen shrubs like ceanothus would be lovely. Grow fairly quickly and give a lovely cornflower blue colour for a long period of time.

For quick colour some hanging baskets or bedding plants.

I wouldn’t say yours was a neglected garden, OP, just a blank one. It looks like the vast majority of U.K. back gardens to me, i.e. a patch of grass. At least yours is mowed!

You definitely need to work out what sort of garden you want before you do anything and decide roughly how much work you want to put into the maintenance.

Do you want to keep the grass?

Think about different levels/heights too, trees might not be suitable if it is a small garden but you can add height with things like bamboo if it suits your taste and budget (be careful with spreading vs clumping varieties). Or climbers on fencing? Some are very fast growing and lovely to look at (Passion flowers, some types of clematis, honeysuckle).

Make your beds wide enough and make sure you plant your plants far enough apart to allow for maturity. So many people plant young shrubs close together because young gardens look ‘gappy’ and then find everything is overcrowded in a few years.

Thanks, these are great tips.

So, I could plant evergreen shrubs in pots now but not the ground as too hard, and then put them in the ground later.

I like the idea of climbers on fencing too.

I’ll ask someone helpful looking at the garden centre. Last time I actually spoke to someone there it was to get them to identify a berry my toddler had consumed so they could tell me if it was poisonous or not , (it wasn’t). They were very helpful then.

I’ve found that if you dig holes/ circles in the lawn to plant shrubs or trees you then have this pesky thing you must mow round for ever more. And the shrub might get damaged whilst mowing so I would plan to slice a corner off the lawn which you can plant with shrubs or whatever and cover the bare earth with bark to reduce the weeding whilst they grow. And you’ve only one straight edge to maintain, rounded edges are fiddly.
Also if you have clay soil, which yours might be, roses are great.

Thanks! Our neighbour has some lovely roses actually. I love the smell, so could have some of those.

Good point re shrub holes. I was thinking of planting some in a row along the edge of a patio.

Before doing / planting anything I'd urge you to think about what you want.

Maybe even draw a plan etc. Think about growing / blooming periods, about winter, the time you're able and want to invest etc. (I like things that more or less take care of themselves...)

The time invested in this really won't be wasted.

I think it would be better to find out what you want and then check whether there's anything you could do know. Instead of doing it the other way round (trying to come up with things to do now before you have a clear picture/plan.)
I'm not trying to be patronising, btw it's just a mistake I made with my first garden...

Starting out with pots is never a bad idea. Or building beets (if that's something you want?)

Planting spring blooming bulbs in autumn is one of my favourite things, btw. It's really easy and looks very nice in spring.

You can also plant fall blooming bulbs in late summer / early fall (depends on the plant and where you live) :)

(Bulbs are just so easy, look really pretty and you won't have to wait for years to 'reap' -well, see - the fruit of your labour...)

Not patronising at all! I have no clue whatsoever when it comes to gardening!

I know I want a vegetable patch eventually, but imagine digging it out now would not really be possible. I know where i think I can put it - it’s a very sunny, sheltered spot, but my garden slopes very slightly away from our house and the spot I think I’d like for my veg patch is at the bottoms of that slope. Don’t know if that’s a concern, but I’ll ask at garden centre or if anyone on here happens to know, that’s great too.

For now, I’ll stick to pots / boxes I think. Possible will do one corner soon with some easily maintained perennials (lavender maybe?), but not a big area and not a big mix of things.

Oh good :)

Lavender is great (we have lavender and rosmarin). Lavender and roses are a pretty classic and imo beautiful combo... (Also, the smell is so lovely)

Good drainage is super important for lavender. Cutting / Pruning lavender is pretty easy but needs to be done. You wiöö want to slow down the formation of wood. They do well in poor soil (fertilising lavender can actually be bad for it.)

Lavender is imo a great, usually low effort plant :) also make sure you known what kind of lavender you want / you're buying. (Idk, you may already know all this.)

Do make sure that the pot doesn't freeze (if you decide to keep them in a pot this year)

Raised beds are pretty cool as well, imo. Also if you 'stack' them up. Gives height, interest etc (if that's a look you like)..

Berrie bushes and grapes are also great for families with children imo. They're not too difficult but usually (unfortunately) take some time to establish. (And some berries spread. that's something to pay attention to)

Re vegetables: we had cut salad (the kind you can just snipp the leaves off and grows again at our last house). That's something I'd definitely recommend :)
Having a little herb garden (be it in pots or beets) is lovely as well imo.

I'm a little jealous of you, tbh. I'd love to start of with a blank space. (The garden of our new house has a few pretty permanent features...)

Sorry, I'm probably rambling. But I've been really focused on our garden for the last few months... I'm probably a bit obsessed ;)

If your vegetables patch slopes then I would suggest making a raised bed. With sleepers or bricks. The deeper part at the back could be for your veggies and the front for salad crops. Strawberries do well in a raised beds. They need to be kept off the ground so they could trail over the front and sides of the raised beds. You will need to use untreated sleepers. If you have a reclamation yard nearby, you can get all sort of wood, stones and bricks quite easily.

One thing you could do now is to create an insect area. Loads of ideas on the net . Piling up old stones and wood, for insects is great fun. Maybe also start a compost area if you have an out of the way place.

To keep your itchy fingers going for veg now try one of these:
www.rocketgardens.co.uk/products/veg-plants/all-in-one-planters/
They are all in one planters with the planter, the soil, growing guides and little veg plants.
(Sign up for their mailing list first, they are forever having money off sales)

I started with a winter salad one last autumn and got the children's one this spring. (If you get the children's one you will need some pots too- it's a bit ambitiously packed). They are ACE for total beginners!!

Thanks for all of these.

I went to the garden centre this afternoon and bought some sweet pea (already in a basket with a frame), some low maintenance perennials and some annual bedding plants. I’ve started to clear a small area for a bed at the side of my garden. Found some horrible looking weed thing... I’ve dug it out and hoping that’s enough, but not sure if I need to get some weed killer?

My 3yo has been helping and really enjoying it, so it may be a new hobby for us both, which is fab. Better than bloody kinetic sand - equally messy, but at least it’s outside and useful!

I'm only here to say I must have spent too much time on here because when I saw the title in Active I thought it said naice

sausage. I am a vair naice gardener I’ll have you know.

If you’re interested in getting a book Alan Titchmarsh 'How to be a Gardener' is great for a novice. There's a good online guide too here including assessing your plot etc. It's worth a read. www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/htbg/module1/index.shtml

And of course Gardener's World on bbc2/iplayer.

Good luck.

It’s great that your starting a garden, it’s such a lovely relaxing hobby.
Some good ideas here from previous posters.
I would warn you that your sweet peas will need a lot of watering, especially in this hot weather. Also feeding.
Wilkinsons are a great shop for this like plant food, they do an own brand very cheaply, which has the same content as more modern expensive brands and their other gardening bits are good.
Hope you’re enjoying your garden.

Thanks @JT05.

I’ve got some plant food - I just picked a random bottle. I assume that’s not quite what I should do, but I was a bit overwhelmed at the garden centre! There’s just so much stuff there! Mind blown .

I’ll feed and water the sweet pea this morning. I’ll just water everything else and I’m going to dig out a small flower bed today. I cleared loads of gravel from the area yesterday. I reported and fed some little geraniums. Also fed the very dead looking tomato and strawberry plants which my fil gave us and which we left unattended in the heat while we were away last weekend . Looking forward to getting out again today.

Reported? Re-potted.

That’s great. Don’t forget to remove the faded sweet pea flowers. If you don’t do this they’ll stop flowering. This is the same for most flowering plants.
Watering is best done in the cool of the evening, so the moisture is retained, unless the plant is desperate.
Enjoy the lovely sunny day.

Exciting! My garden is SE facing as well (slightly more easterly) - am I right in thinking your left hand fence gets all the sun in the afternoon and the right hand is shade? On that basis I'd probably focus on planting up the left fence. Planting for shade is a bit trickier but not impossible

Pots would be an excellent start, just keep watering them in this intense heat. I prefer to water in the early morning/late evening so that it doesn't stress the plant.

Do you know what's under the stones by the fence? Is it a new build? Often the ground is chock full of rubble just beneath the surface. If not I'd look into digging a wide border (30cm is NOT deep enough, aim for 50-60cm at least). Probably not the time to be doing it in this heat - as per pp line tall pots up with evergreen shrubs instead

If and when you eventually plant in the ground, plant things at least 30cm from the fence as the soil gets very dry there, even when it rains. I made this mistake with quite a lot of things. Best to plant them forward and angle back if they're to be trained up the fence.

Raised veg bed sounds excellent

I love vertical gardening so always thinking about tall varieties, tall/stacking pots/hanging baskets/pouches etc. The latter need watering all the time in this weather!

How to be a gardener is on Youtube in 28min segments. I pressed play on the first one and the audio comes in at about 30secs.

Wilko is indeed great and v affordable for gardening whatnot.

If in doubt just keep asking questions!

Happy gardening!