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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Gardening beginner

6 replies

Bigjohn0 · 13/11/2020 16:51

Has anyone got any tips or advice for a gardening novice like what plants are easy maintenance, how to keep cats off them, how to keep lawn healthy??

OP posts:
MereDintofPandiculation · 14/11/2020 16:08

That's a very wide question!

To start with, what sort of plant would you like to grow? Do you want flowers, autumn colour, winter interest? How big do you want them?

senua · 14/11/2020 17:58

Has anyone got any tips or advice for a gardening novice
The advice on house-buying is "location, location, location". This is because you can alter the house as much as you want (extend, redecorate, etc, etc) but there is precious little you can do about the neighbourhood. The location is outside of your control.
It's similar with gardening. You have to consider the factors beyond your control and operate within those parameters. So: size, orientation, slope, soil type, acidity, sun/shade, dry/wetness.

yamadori · 14/11/2020 18:09

Might I suggest the 'Expert' series of books by DG Hessayon? There are titles in all sorts of topics, and second-hand copies are readily available.
The Flower Expert and The Lawn Expert might be good to start with. They were the only ones I had for years. There's not a lot you can be getting on with gardening-wise at this time of year, so maybe spend some time between now and spring doing some research?

NannyGythaOgg · 14/11/2020 18:39

If you are really interested in reading around the subject, you could get a magazine subscription.

I had some Tesco tokens to use up and opted for Garden Answers, weekly mag and have now put a proper subscription. It's only £4.50 per month and I look forward to seeing what the free seeds I get each week are.

Quarks69 · 21/11/2020 10:14

Big John if you haven’t really gardened before , it all seems quite daunting but more top tip is this...

  • check if ground Basically acid, chalk or clay (ask neighbour or google!)
  • Pick an area of ground.
  • Dig up all the weeds and cut back the bushes.
  • Go to garden centre find a shrub or flower that you like, which likes your soil
  • put it in the ground
  • repeat....

Seriously, before you know it you will be hooked and all the subtleties that experienced gardeners know, you will learn to. It’s an addictive journey just like cooking or any other hobby. Don’t be put off by the things that go wrong

  • bloody cats..buy a water pistol!
7Days · 21/11/2020 10:57

Right now is a good time to go out to your lawn with a garden fork jab it in and wiggle it a bit, then a few steps later do the same.
It helps with compaction and drainage, so if we get a wet winter you wont get as many pool on the surface and there should be less moss etc.

Now is also the end of the time for getting your spring bulbs down so if you like daffs and tulips etc get the bulbs down in the next few weeks. Rule of thumb is bury them as deep as themselves.

If you have tatty looking beds and borders, cut away anything that looks brown and messy, dont worry most stuff will grow back in the spring, weed everything and mulch. Hardcore gardeners will get well rotted horse manure or garden compost for mulch, but you will still thank yourself next year for putting down some ordinary bags of compost from the garden centre now. It will keep the weeds down and enrich the soil for next year at the same time.

You should also take note of what has been doing well in your garden up to now, and make a note of wthere it's been - in the shade or on wet ground or whatever, and also what does well in your neighbours gardens. That will be very handy when its garden centre time again. Garden centre staff will understand a lot about your soil and acidity from that and they'll be able to recommend other plants that like the same conditions.

AND the best bit for this time of year. Seed catalogues are a feast for the eyes and they always say what type of soil/shadiness each plant requires. So order some, put your feet up and dream about Spring!

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