Last year we moved into a new build property.
The garden was a blank slate so I had large raised beds built. They just filled the beds with the 'soil' they excavated from the rest of the garden.
To be honest, I didn't know anything about plants, I just bought what I thought looked nice and was big so that it filled the space quickly.
I planted lots of cordylines, fatsia, lavendar, a magnolia, ivy, holly, heucheras, hebes, phorniums, cotoneaters, skimmias, rhododenrons, laurel, photinia red robins, aucuba japonicas, heathers, and lots more.
I am happy with the way it looks this summer but upon doing more research I seem to have planted a mix of both acid loving and acid hating plants. I'm noticing a few yellowing leaves on some of the plants (mostly the holly) and have done a bit of reading it seems it could be that I need to supplement the acid loving plants with iron or ericaceous feed.
How will this play out given that I have a mixture of plants? Have I doomed myself to never having a plant that is truly going to flourish? Can you 'spot feed' certain acid loving plants or will it leach into the soil?
This year I have dealt with some kind of fungus on my photinia which I seem to have treated (new leaves coming through without black spots) and on my magnolia.
I am learning more every day.
I will attach some pictures of the garden so far.
For reference, the soil is very clay based and crap, typical new build rubbish. STILL finding bricks and all sorts even though I dug it out for days and added in bark mulch before I planted anything. Should have added better soil at the beginning but I was very ignorant and just wanted quick results.
Lost a few plants over the winter due to ignorance and not protecting with fleece etc when I should have.
Surprised how much I am enjoying the garden, last house we basically had only a lawn and some pots! I've probably planted some stuff far too close together in my haste to make it look established, so may have to move some things around in a year or two?
Thanks for any advice.