We can’t grow literally anything!

[GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat]

Past failures (most in the last 12 months)

Hydrangeas
Fuchsia
Carrots
Hanging baskets
Grass

Latest failures
Sunflowers and wild flower seed bomb.

Literally nothing grows! I’ve tried to keep alive plants and bushes I’ve bought as well as started with seeds. Nowt.

Weed on the other hand.....

Are some people just unable to have lovely gardens?

I think we’ve all made it sound more work than it really is.

Step 1. Manure your beds.
Literally cover the flower beds in an inch or two. I get mine from the garden centre in bags. It’s not hugely expensive, but is well worth the expense in weed suppression alone! I’m no good at digging but my soil is lovely now.

When I first moved to this house, my 1st autumn mulch I covered the beds in thick newspaper or cardboard and then manured. With a view to it being broken down for spring planting.

1. Go on the rhs plant finder website (I’ll pop a link in a second) and you’ll be able to use the drop down boxes to find suitable plants. They even have links to nurseries with them.

Pots,

1. Put a few broken pot bits (I’ve used those packaging noodles before or polystyrene at a pinch)
2. New compost
3. Pop plant in, squash around it. Water well
4. Check if the plant needs water by poking your finger in.
5. Feed occasionally. I use seaweed for the pots and chicken manure pellets. But wilko, sainsburys and garden centres sell all sorts of Generic or specific feed.

Honestly that’s it, if you want it to be. Yes you can learn about pruning, repotting etc etc. But that’s it really. Oh and gardeners world is on tonight. They are doing loads of bits for beginners so well well well worth it.

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/search-form

I love roses! Will def look in to those.

Thanks for the step by step guide, that’s very helpful and I’ll take a look at the link

I’m off to the garden centre tomorrow, very excited 😆

We’ve been given an African Daisy plant in a pot, where in our little north facing garden would you suggest to put it?

It will want as much sun as possible .

Are you keeping it in the pot or putting it in the ground? They usually prefer soil that is not too rich and fertile, but they often don't survive the winter.

Don't water when the sun is on the plants? I've had to figure out over time what I can and can't kill!
Bleeding hearts are pretty tough, azaleas or rhododendrons, Mexican orange blossom.

Should we be watering in the morning and evening during his hot weather? It hasn’t rained for about a week and is about 26/27 degrees here in the south east.

I do mine every night but I don't have a lot in pots,

Don't water plants in direct sunshine. It can burn them.

Urban myth, sorry. Plants have evolved over millions of years to be able to cope with a sudden shower of rain, and hot sunshine coming out straight afterwards.

Some large floppy flowers such as petunias don't like getting wet, but you can water them at the base of the plant instead.

If you leave parched plants and don't water them until the sun goes down, you will have dead plants. Water them when they need it.

I only grow easy stuff... that is also slug proof. Had success with
Strawberries
Lavender
Geraniums
Rosemary

Ah yes I killed a lavender bush last year too

I’ve just poked my pots, gave them a good water last night. Still really wet, so I’m not going to water tonight.
Poke your finger into the pot and if it’s wet under the surface, leave it. If it’s dry, water away

I am going to chuck some water at the little shrubs I planted in the ground though

I’ve had a few near misses with lavender by over watering. I’ve also got some the landlord planted which are in totally the wrong place (shade and damp) so they don’t stand a chance but are limping along.

Are you feeding your potted plants OP? The compost might just be exhausted of nutrients. You can get cheap slow release granules from eg Wilko or Poundland.

The plants will also be stunted by the size of the pot they're in as their roots can't spread. They might grow better once planted out.

We are in the SW and have a long N facing garden. The plants that do best in our garden are against the west wall, east facing.