When do I go back out there? - novice

[valleybutt]

Only just got a garden last year. In the past I would congratulate myself if I kept a cacti alive...

We've got a long stone bed about 1m wide by the fence that runs the length of the garden. It was overgrown when we moved it with weeds and rubble. We've cleared and sieved over the summer, put fabric down and planted some basic bits like lavender, a couple of types of spreaders, some tall (40-50cm) Spring flowering flowers that I can't remember the name of and left a little patch and popped a bee friendly mix in there and the rest currently has bark chips on as there's quite a bit of space left in between the plants and we wanted to avoid the mass of weeds that tend to appear overnight in the soil here.

To be honest I haven't done anything to it since probably September
Currently WFH and will be for the foreseeable and I'm hoping to make a good early start on the garden this year.
Could anyone give me some basic tips on when I should get in there to clean up and do some more planting?
I'm hoping to grow some more colourful flowers and easy to maintain perennials and also would love a climber - could anyone suggest some good ones?

We are in the countryside and I think it's clay soil and a south east facing garden. The beds get direct sunlight up until about 12 in the summertime.

I don't garden in winter except for tidying at the start. Be careful when you tidy that you don't inadvertently pull up dead looking plants that are in fact dormant perennials.

It sounds like you've done a lot already. To be honest if it's your first spring in that garden then I'd give what you've already planted a chance to grow. Don't crowd things. Google the width of what you've already put in and try and imagine what they'll be like at 30 or 60cm wide.

If you're planning to grow things from seed then you can get started on that in a few weeks time. If you just want a few perennials then it's easier to buy them as young plants in the spring. My favourite reliable perennials include things like;

Lavender (lots together)
Nepeta
Salvia
Erigeron (masses of pretty pink and white daisies, which love stonework or walls)
Geranium 'rozanne'

For colour and brightness all summer I love cosmos (not a perennial). I'm planning on growing it from seed this year and putting big clumps of it into any gaps.

I have no idea about climbers as I'm a beginner myself, but there are lots of knowledgeable gardening mumsnetters who'll be able to advise.

You could start some seeds like Sweet peas if you have a windowsill or coldframe.

For your gaps I’d look at sowing seeds such as Marigolds, Love in a Mist, Californian Poppies, Candytuft, Nasturtium and Cosmos, already mentioned.
They can all be sown directly onto the soil in March and will give a riot of colour in the summer.
Clematis are great climbers, they come in different varieties, some rampant that flower in the Spring and others that are slower growers that flower through the summer. There are also some evergreen ones that are in flower now. A Google search will help you decide which would be best for your situation.
A lot of the fun of gardening is the planning and then seeing what grows well and maybe what wasn’t so successful.

I'm a new gardener too. If you register on the RHS website you can input which plants you have and get monthly alerts of jobs you can do, related to your plants. I'll try and add a screenshot