Are there any gardening experts here?

[Sparrowlegs248]

I'm looking for some advice, a few people I've asked are very vague, which I think is the way when you know what you're on about.

I want to sort the first half of my garden out. It's a typical old terrace garden, walled, with path to the left, lawn and L shaped bed to the right and bottom end. quite wide/deep bed with a couple of small trees, and a bush. Few roses. And shit loads of weeds.

Please please can someone advise me on what to plant. It's quite sunny until late afternoon. Should I just concentrate on weeding this year?
I like a cottage garden look. With mostly plants that will stay rather than die each year, if that's possible? Or at detailed instructions of when to plant/remove.

Thank you, I'll be very very grateful for any replies!

I would start by looking on Pinterest. If you put in ‘landscape gardens’ lots will come up. Pin the ones that appeal to you and this will give you a starting point. I have helped design lots of gardens for friends and this is usually the best way to start.

Once you see what you have collected, there is likely to be a theme that emerges. It could be particular colours that dominate or certain plants. In your case, because you want a cottage garden style, you wont be pinning clean lines or bare spaces.

Once you have your pins repost on the Gardening Section of MN and add the photos. You can then ask what plants to buy and how to care for them. I have been gardening for 50 years, but when I had a garden make-over 2 years ago, MN gardeners provided invaluable advice.

Also perhaps ask HQ to move this to Gardening and post some pics of your existing garden.

Come over to the gardening forum and post some photos

What direction does your garden face?

I'm going to hazard a guess at east. The sun cones up at the bottom right of the back garden pretty much. The area outside my back door is in sun until late afternoon, sunsets at the front of the house. God I'm useless at this. Anyway, it's a nice sunny back garden. I have some shade along the bed due to the wall.

I've asked to move to gardening, thanks.

I've tried pinterest for other things and just don't "get" it. My sister spends hours looking at ideas, I don't know how. Maybe I should get a book.

Yes, do exactly what florentina says re Pintrest. Literally type in searches like: gardens, garden styles, landscape gardens, and pin those that appeal to you. You just making a massive pin board of ideas that will identify what colours, styles you prefer. Then narrow it down to a few pics that you can post on here.

Also post pics of what you have now, and be clear about how you want to use the garden - do you want to have morning coffee out there? Bbqs for 20? Just sit in peace listening to birds?

How much do you want to spend?
It would be nice to expand the path using paving, maybe about half way down to make a seating area -you could even do away with the lawn. Using bark on the flowerbeds suppresses the weeds. But lots of bark (it needs to be thick) and getting paving laid is dear.
Do you have small DCs. Do you have a clothesline.

I'll do a diagram. .......

I do have small children.

Wall all the way around. Bare patch is paved and path.

I do have a table, chairs, chimney thing on the right.

The "crap" area is going to be cleared for a play area for the children. It's really the bedding I'm keen to sort out.

I want it to look nice, that's my aim! It's a pretty space but could be much nicer.

There is another larger portion of garden through the bottom gate which has play stuff.

If you can’t get on this Pinterest try going down the route of things you don’t like or do like

A big riot of clashing colours and plants falling over themselves, Red Orange, purple, tall plants short plants all mixed in together.

A soft palette of pink, lavender, lilac white and blue, planted close together so that it looks like and calming hue.

Spring colours of pale yellow with dot of orange.

Individual specimen plants, well supported and with space in between so that you can enjoy each plant.

Delicate airy plants

Big bold plants with huge leaves and large flower heads.

Look at what other gardens nearby have planted and what you like so you can plant the same things. Soil type can be a factor - ours is acid and there are lots of acid loving plants thriving which was a really good indicator.

Take photos of things you like too - if you're not sure what they are ask for a plant ID on the Gardening board.

Thanks @florentina1 I'm going to have a look on Pinterest while I have lunch. But I think this soft palette of pink, lavender, lilac white and blue, planted close together so that it looks like and calming hue.

Is What I like.

OK, plants:
there are:
shrubs - basically bushes. Stay there all the time, so give structure, and some can have lovely flowers, and then lovely autumn leaves. Some are boring green blobs. Require little maintenance, an annual trim. Can get bigger taller ones and small front of bed bushed. Most last years.
If you buy any, look out for the word 'hardy' that means it won't die in the winter.
perennials: these are plants which come up year after year. Many of them disappear into the ground over winter, which can mean you dig them up by accident. These are the basis of a cottage garden look, but it can be hard to get right. Most flower once, so you get beautiful flowers for 3-4 weeks. some keep flowering all summer.
They are lovely if you can get them established, you do need to remember where they are over winter! Not all of them disappear over winter though.
annuals/biennials: this is what all (most) of the plants for sale outside supermarkets are. Things like petunias, violas, geraniums, etc etc. They are usually called summer bedding plants, and are good for quick instant colour. A good one, like a nice petunia will give you pretty flowers from May til October. They are a great way to give an instant boost, and an easy place to start. Much cheaper than perennials or shrubs.

If you don;t know the garden (not long moved in) then I recommend using annuals to bring some colour, and concentrate on weeding, and watch what you have. Then you can plan. Make a note of what is where and when it flowers.
Then think about when and how you use the garden. Spring bulbs that you can see from your kitchen window, and summer bedding near where you will sit with a coffee and watch kids play. Sturdy shrubs near football spot and so on.

My garden is almost the same aspect as yours. The perennial 'cottage garden' plants which do well are hellebores, primroses, bluebells, hardy geraniums, phlox, heleniums, azaleas and astilbe. Also foxgloves, nigella, poppies, nasturtiums, marigolds and aquilegia which are annuals but self-seed profusely so you can just pull out the ones you don't want.

Other resources are local libraries with garden planning books. If you record the Chelsea flower show, which is on the moment this will also give you an idea of strong likes and dislikes.

Although I don't have children so football-proofing is not necessary and some of the above are a bit delicate. Shrubs like forsythia, berberis, quince and mahonia are a lot tougher.

plants are EXPENSIVE!! So any that you have that you can re-use are great.

You do need to know where you are, in my area you can't grow azaleas, rhododendrons, mahonias, camelias, heathers, as they all love acid soil and we are a limestone area.
But clematis do really well.

Don't plant foxgloves until your kids are old enough not to put them into their mouth

Yes - get stuck in with the weeding and bash them as thoroughly as you can. Keep an eye out - you may well find plants that should be there lurking amongst the weeds - they'll start to flourish when they no longer have competition from the weeds.

Plants that come up every year - these are perennials and lots are classic cottage garden plants. Lots and lots to choose from. At the garden centre, look for plants labelled hardy, herbaceous or cottage perennials.

Planting - you can pretty well plant stuff at any time of year. Autumn and/or spring are the optimum times but if you're itching to get going, a lot of plants should be fine. Water them in well when you plant them, and keep an eye on them while they're establishing - watering regularly and keeping them weed-free.

Look out for ground cover plants as well. These are low-growing plants that act as a 'living mulch' and help to suppress weeds. A classic for cottage gardens are hardy geraniums. Tough as old boots and lovely, floriferous little plants.

Books - it's a long time ago, but Geoff Hamilton had a lovely book about cottage gardens. It's out of print, but easily available second-hand. Carol Klein has an equally lovely, more recent one.

Oops - slow typing - lots of xposts.

Oh this is great!! Thanks everyone, I'm going to have a good browse through over lunch, and might get to a garden centre later on. I'll post some Pinterest pics too.

Good places to google are
Piet Oudolf
Beth Chatto gravel garden
great Dixter
Sarah Raven

If you add the word images after then lots more photos come up. I screen shot the ones I liked.

Good plants for a soft palette which are hardy, reliable , no fussy about soil and easy to care for are,
dahlia, particularly the water lily type dahlia
Astrantia
Cosmos
Veronica Charlotte
Delphinium
Borage
Centaura
Lavatera
Verbena
Nigella
Hebe especiallly the silver/ mauve variety.

I would also add in some Grasses, Stipa tennuisimma , little blue stem and Festuca. Grasses are great because they give movement to the garden and are easy to divide and plant elsewhere for free gardening.

lavender is great for the soft purple look. It can be small bushes, or really get quite big. Smells nice as you brush past, and the leaves are pretty, even when there are no flowers. Looks nice at the front of a border.
You need to give it a regular haircut, as it will go woody and leggy otherwise, but very tough once established (good for withstanding bashing by toys/footballs

Geraniums - that is proper perennial geraniums is also great, soft green clumps with lovely flowers, again, pretty tough once it has established. Flowers can be purple/blue or pink. Disappears in winter, but comes up quite early in spring. once finished though it can look straggly and messy. If you remember you can give it a haircut once the flowers have gone, and it may flower again.

Geranium Rozanne is a really popular one as it is quite big - so plant will be 2 ft across and 18inches high (roughly) after a year and it flowers all summer, though you might need to dead head to ensure it does that.
Growing plants under trees is not so easy due to dry shadow.
Crocosmia is a good plant - leaves are attractive. Try to get bog standard plants, not some new obscure peachy one that has just been developed, the old ones are the toughest. They should be mentioned in gardening books but garden centres are full of new strains of plants which can turn out to be less hardy.
Having said that new strains of rose seem to be bred to flower well and be hardy so, for example, patio roses are good for long flowering and don't get too big.
I like big clumps of one type rather than plants scattered individually, then you can get a really striking show so buy maybe 3 of them at least.

If you google ‘planting plans’ lots of websites have maps of how to plant a border and what to buy to do it. I haven’t followed any of them completely, but they give you a really good idea of what works where, what things look like and how they go together. Crocus have some good ones.