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 😂

Thanks for the Morrison's tip, popped in this afternoon and picked up several perennials I'd been after for a while at 2 for £3.

What do you wish you'd known before you started gardening?
Don't think that you are in charge; Mother Nature is. You can make suggestions but its ultimately down to her (soil, aspect, temperature, precipitation, etc). Work with her, not against her.

Being a good gardener is more than being a plantswoman. Plants are only about 40% of a garden.

@sashagabadon

Consider grasses, they are so easy and look great summer / autumn. Very low maintenance and easy to divide to create more plants. Plant in drifts, 3 minimum ideally 5. Also stick to a nice colour palate of a few colours rather than random plants with random colours dotted everywhere

I love ornamental grasses - I've recently got some bunny ears and they're gorgeous. Grass is so underrated in my opinion. I had a small meadow area in the garden but because I'm HA the neighbours complained it was unkempt and I was told I had to mow all the wildflowers and grasses or get an ASBO

The garden that brings you joy needs tending regularly or it will become a brick around your neck.

I'm all for letting the weeds grow along with the other stuff but you only have to go away for a couple of days and it's like a fecking jungle out there.
One hour a day will keep my garden in check, not a couple of hours a week. I know this and yet..............

..Going out there today to beat my way through and create calm, :)

@larkstar amazing post thank you so much. I love climbers too and I really want a magnolia tree also

Some things will die, even when you plant it in the optimum soil and position. It doesn't mean you're crap at gardening, it's just one of those things.

Not just Morrison's - I have some good soft fruit bushes which started at Wilko.

Nothing is guaranteed - just because something did well last year, it’s not a guarantee for this year! I’m talking specifically about my sweet peas. First time growing them last year - they were amazing. This year they are woeful. I’m so disappointed with them! I was absolutely certain they would be amazing again!

@Deereamer

Nothing is guaranteed - just because something did well last year, it’s not a guarantee for this year! I’m talking specifically about my sweet peas. First time growing them last year - they were amazing. This year they are woeful. I’m so disappointed with them! I was absolutely certain they would be amazing again!

Well you're in the right place for tips - a lot of sweet pea aficionados here!!

Buy really good quality tools and tie bright lengths of ribbon to them so you can find them when you put them down and move onto the next job.
If you are building a new garden plant 3s and 5s of a few plants and as this can be expensive just throw mixed seeds into the gaps and then add year on year. You will get a great colourful display on the first year as you build your garden.

Right plant right place
E.g A lavender will never thrive in a shady damp place or a hydrangea in a dry sunny spot.

No dig method.
Cardboard and manure have change my world as a weakling!

The boiled up garlic and water slug treatment.

@EvilPea tell me more about the garlic slug treatment. Does it work on snails? I really want hostas on my shady terrace but the snails devour them.

Yip very true

Can someone direct me to some good quality tools they would recommend?

Mine are b&m and would like to upgrade, but not pay too much unless they are genuine good quality.

That anything you put in the compost bin will grow when you use the compost. We spread our compost generously and filled tubs using it. We have random tomato plants growing EVERYWHERE, nicotiana when we definitely didn't plant them and borage! Oh they are huge! I can't bring myself to remove them though because the bees love them.

@Beancounter1 oh no . I planted some Morning Glory seeds . It is just starting to grow . Should I pull it out ?

[quote Frenchfancy]@EvilPea tell me more about the garlic slug treatment. Does it work on snails? I really want hostas on my shady terrace but the snails devour them.[/quote]
It’s magic.
It doesn’t hurt or harm them so won’t affect hedgehogs or birds. But they hate the stink (or for snails have PTSD about being eaten)
www.siennahosta.co.uk/pages/garlic-wash-recipe

I just spray it on liberally after watering or rain

Morning Glory grew nicely with me, then died before flowering. It won't necessarily be a thug.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, super helpful!

I love morning glory. Beautiful flowers and I've never been able to over winter it so not a thug.

@EvilPea

Right plant right place E.g A lavender will never thrive in a shady damp place or a hydrangea in a dry sunny spot.

No dig method.
Cardboard and manure have change my world as a weakling!

The boiled up garlic and water slug treatment.

Never heard of the no dig method I'll have to look it up!

Take time to stop, look and enjoy what you have achieved. Sometimes it feels like a slog and it's good to have somewhere you can sit and feel smug

@ImprobablePuffin

Its fabulous. You ideally weed an area (although i have been really lazy and not even bothered weeding it) cover it with cardboard (double over the joints) wet it, and then manure / mulch over the top (a few inches). Within a few months the cardboard decomposes and the manure stops the weeds coming through.
Bingo weed free flower bed ready to plant up.Its ideally done over winter, but I've done it in all seasons .

I now remulch, once or twice a year it feeds the plants and surpresses the weeds. I rent and am a weakling so the garden is inevitably weed filled when we move in and never dug, so this method means i can actually make holes for plants to go in and I'm not fighting with grass in flower beds.

I wish I’d known not to buy a house in Scotland on heavy clay soil with
a) tree roots running everywhere,
b) a heavy ground elder and bramble infestation, and
c) large drain manhole covers in the most awkward and conspicuous places in the middle of borders and paths!
However, after nearly 40 years of digging in the contents of my compost heap, burning, uprooting and poisoning the ground elder, and learning which plants can cope with minus 18C Scottish winters, I am beginning to win….

I’m deliberately reviving this thread as I’ve found it really useful. Also hoping someone can suggest some snail proof plants for my raised beds. My lavender and salvia are really thriving but my anemones and petunias lasted what felt like seconds!