Starting again from scratch

[Bobbiepin]

We've recently removed everything from our flower beds and want to start again so we're likely off to the garden centre again.

Both DH and I work long hours and don't have much time to tend to a garden (although there is a patch we would like to grow fruit and veg with dd).

Two questions-

1. Do we need to give new top soil a chance to settle before planting anything?
2. Can anyone recommend some low maintenance plants/flowers that'll just need some watering every now and then and not too much attention.

Thanks!

I would go for filing the beds with shrubs and hardy petenials. If there isn't much space for weeds to grow then all you will need to do is a once a year prune and tidy and a small amount of weeding in spring/summer. See what is growing in other nearby gardens. If it is going well there it will probably do well in your garden. These are pretty easy to grow so see if there is anything you like the look of here: crocosmia
Hebe
Roses
Ceanothus
Verbena bonariensis
Day lilies
Paeonies
Hopefully someone else will come and suggest some more things

And you don't need to let the soil settle

Thank you. I love roses but thought they required a lot of work? Pruning and the like?

Low maintenance and good show of flowers - Geum, red valerian or lady's mantle. Rudbeckia are robust and grow like mad in my garden (Ive never touched them!). Euphorbias are pretty and seem happy to be completely left alone. I love phlox but they are slug magnets.

Roses are not much work.
Prune in January , 10 mins per bush. Really easy lots of you tube videos, but you can’t get it wrong. Feed afterwards and again in June.

You can dead head them through the summer, as it makes them flower again, but it’s 2 mins a week per bush. Ask dd to hold the bucket to collect while you snip the dead blooms off.

Really worth it for all that beauty.

Nah. Like Ohyesiam says. They only need priming once a year and dead heading if you can be bothered with it. Roses are pretty robust. Another useful tip. Crocus online plant supplier give a years guarantee so if you do manage to kill something within a year they will replace it

Oh wonderful. Dd is still pretty young so will do roses maybe next year when she understands about the thorns.

I'll have a look at those suggestions though, thank you. Any other tips for growing fruit/veg? The garden is a little sun trap (no shade) so will get a lot a lot of sun. We were thinking tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce of some sort and strawberries.