What do you wish you'd known before you started gardening?

[ImprobablePuffin]

Just that really, I couldn't find a recent similar thread so thought I'd start one. I'm still such a novice and feel proud if I remember the correct name for any plants! It feels a bit overwhelming at times with each plants different needs and I've def lost a few plants to ignorance.
So what do you wish you'd known as a novice that would have helped no end? Picture just for fun because I love my allium 😂

Agree with grouping plants together or in my case, not buying one of each plant so they look like a jumbled mess

Also, it's ok to throw seedlings out if they are too successful. Better to have too many to use than too few. My cosmos germination rate was 99% which left me with too many and I was desperately trying to squeeze them in. My catnip on the other hand was 10% success and those seedlings were quickly found and eaten by my cat. I ended up sowing some every week to keep her in a steady supply.

Patience - some plants don't flower until year 2 or even 3, some things need a few years to grow enough to look really good, you can't just shove in loads of plants and it look perfect - you need to add and change over time with what works. A garden is a constant work in progress.

The thing I wish I had known is how much I would love it! I would have started years before! Although to be fair this is my first home that I have owned.

1. Be very mean to your perennial plants. Drenching irregularly is better than watering little and often. Because otherwise you encourage the roots to grow at the surface of the soil which is the most susceptible to drought and you will have to water for the rest of your life.

1. Promulch is king

1. Its all about the boundaries. Once your garden is a stable masterpiece your eyes will be drawn to the edges. Money cant buy you exceptional boundaries. Only time.

@5zeds

That I’d be so utterly crap at it

Ha ha yes same although I've lucked out with plants that need no care and flower yearly.

Although I did for the very first time yesterday use miracle grow on my plants to see if that will do anything special

Bulbs are dead easy and great for colour popping up when you've forgotten about them. Structure first, so any trees and hedges - and every garden needs a tree :) garden centres sell things like perennials at silly prices, lupins and foxgloves etc., which are easy to grow from seed, so buy lots of seeds for perennials, not the plants. Go to your local nurseries over big chains like Dobbies. Start watching gardeners world, visiting gardens, walking round the block and stealing loads of ideas. It's great!

@MrsSkylerWhite

Is that an allium or an agapanthus? Either way, it’s lovely. I wish I’d known to pretty much ignore expert advice, all of the dos and donts. You can’t grow this there, that won’t tolerate shade, that needs constant sun. Just try it and see. Works pretty well for me. My garden’s lovely 😊

I mean I think it's an allium but if you read my OP then you'll know not to trust my ID skills

@RedToothBrush

Its addictive and you really can't have too many seeds.

Too many seedlings and not enough space yes. Too many seeds no.

Also see bulbs.

The information on the seed packet about dry / moist etc is meaningless if you have unprecedented rain or heatwave.

You need another water butt.

Your neighbours who don't maintain their gardens and let bindweed invade yours are total twats.

I don't have a water butt yet but it's on the list. We inherited an absolute disaster of a garden and up until recently I'm afraid we were the bastard neighbours with the bindweed!

This'll be outing but I don't care enough to be bothered, I have a new insta following the transformation of our garden from disaster to homestead. It's @thesecretgardenfarm if you want to see pics or follow this novice trying to pretend I can do this lol

@Cheermonger

That you don’t have to die the whole packet of seeds all at once, you can sow a few and keep the rest for next year. Otherwise you end up with 178 tomato plants.

I feel like you're speaking from very real experience?

@Titsywoo

Patience - some plants don't flower until year 2 or even 3, some things need a few years to grow enough to look really good, you can't just shove in loads of plants and it look perfect - you need to add and change over time with what works. A garden is a constant work in progress.

The thing I wish I had known is how much I would love it! I would have started years before! Although to be fair this is my first home that I have owned.

Agree with all of this. I wish I'd realised how therapeutic it would be before reaching 36.

Well I chucked loads as I didn’t have enough pots and the compost would have been about £50 lol. Gardeners world Facebook group is brilliant too, some wonderful ideas and experience on there - they’re always willing to share knowledge

"Promulch is king"

Oh can you teach me something? What is Promulch?

If you have a big garden you need a compost area or spend your weekends getting garden waste to the tip.
Water butt's. Have lots.
Trees and shrubs get big and I 5 years will have outgrown that spot. Plan ahead and plan big.

I see a couple of mentions already for bindweed. If you're not sure what it looks like, google it now. Do not do what I did and drag it to a compost pile at the other end of the garden!

Know your soil type, mine is heavy clay and I would have saved so much money than buying plants that were not suitable!

@MrsSkylerWhite

Is that an allium or an agapanthus? Either way, it’s lovely. I wish I’d known to pretty much ignore expert advice, all of the dos and donts. You can’t grow this there, that won’t tolerate shade, that needs constant sun. Just try it and see. Works pretty well for me. My garden’s lovely 😊

It’s definitely an agapanthus!

That some things will surprise you and take time - the peonies I planted took 4 years to establish.

Plant in 3s or 5s - odd numbers.

Slugs are bastards and you must find slug resistant plants if they are a problem or buy nemotodes

Beware of frost.

Have a good and reliable gardener.

Check how big a plant will grow before you plant it.

That sweet little shrub in a small pot might after about 5 years have become a massive giant of a plant taking up a much bigger area of your garden than you ever possibly imagined. Yes massive Hebe in my front garden I'm I'm talking about you!

MrsSkylerWhite
Is that an allium or an agapanthus?
Either way, it’s lovely.
I wish I’d known to pretty much ignore expert advice, all of the dos and donts. You can’t grow this there, that won’t tolerate shade, that needs constant sun.
Just try it and see. Works pretty well for me. My garden’s lovely 😊
It’s definitely an agapanthus!

See? I can't be trusted at all!

That you need to stake plants or put in supports before they grow. If you buy decent sized perennial plants you can chop them in half or into three before you plant them out- I spent £5 on a geum from the supermarket in May that has made three decent sized plants already

It doesn't matter if you make a mistake. Having a go is better than being overwhelmed and inert.

@BadlydoneHelen

That you need to stake plants or put in supports before they grow. If you buy decent sized perennial plants you can chop them in half or into three before you plant them out- I spent £5 on a geum from the supermarket in May that has made three decent sized plants already

When you say chop, do you mean chop or tease gently apart or can you really be that vigorous? I'm always worried if I'm too rough everything will drop dead.

I cut it with my bread knife!

@ImprobablePuffin

Professional grade mulch. It has the consistency of freshly tilled soil in jet black lovely soil colour. Loose to apply so easy to shovel from the tonne bag and distribute. After watering it binds both too itself and the soil so it doesn't get blown away when mowing, blowing or the like. After a week or so the worms start to drag it down and before you know it the whole bed is fluffy, soft and aerated. After the season it just distintegrates into the soil seamlessly. So no removing old mulch during leaf fall clearance. Beautiful stuff.

www.rolawn.co.uk/bark-mulch/rolawn-promulch-bulk-bag

That I would have a pang every time I went on holiday - even much needed and anticipated holidays - because I'd be worrying about whether the garden needed watering or whether the courgettes needed picking while I was away.

That you need to be really organised about your sowing/pricking out schedule and that seeds really won't wait for you to feel like getting round to it, otherwise you might miss the window completely (I'm mainly an allotment/vegetable gardener and have missed out on the opportunity to grow particular things because I dilly-dallied too long at the critical time. There's no point in sowing tomatoes in June because they probably won't ripen before the end of the season!)

Oh, and that doing a bit of gardening every day is much better than spending hours weeding and getting sunburnt every weekend!

[quote LemonSwan]@ImprobablePuffin

Professional grade mulch. It has the consistency of freshly tilled soil in jet black lovely soil colour. Loose to apply so easy to shovel from the tonne bag and distribute. After watering it binds both too itself and the soil so it doesn't get blown away when mowing, blowing or the like. After a week or so the worms start to drag it down and before you know it the whole bed is fluffy, soft and aerated. After the season it just distintegrates into the soil seamlessly. So no removing old mulch during leaf fall clearance. Beautiful stuff.

www.rolawn.co.uk/bark-mulch/rolawn-promulch-bulk-bag[/quote]
Thank you so much!