Feeling hopeless about my garden

[weedsbegone]

I'm a total gardening novice with a garden that's about 60ft long. There are two large flowerbeds in the garden but they're constantly full of weeds. Last summer whenever I de-weeded they were back within a couple of weeks and because I've done nothing over the winter they're now worse than ever. I know it's normal to have weeds but is it usual to have so many?

My second question is, can I start getting my garden ready for spring/summer now or is it still too cold? Looking at the weather, daytime temperatures here are around 7 degrees for the next week or so, whilst at night it's getting down to 0 or a bit lower.

When it is time to start tidying the garden and preparing it for spring, what should I be doing (other than removing the weeds!)

Also, the flower beds have very few plants in them at the moment - what can I buy that's cheap and will give good coverage? I have a lot of space to fill but my budget is tight.

The garden is north facing and has quite a few large trees around it so probably only gets several hours sun on the flowerbeds per day. The soil type is clay.

Thank you!

The flowerbeds being empty is why you have so many weeds. Nature abhors a vacuum, it will fill any space you give it!

Do you want to become a gardener, or do you just want something low maintenance? What do you want from your garden? I would decide that before you do anything else.

Thank you for the reply. I don't want to become a gardener - I just want to have a nice looking, presentable garden that's low maintenance!

Firstly, you need to know that gardens take years to get established, unless you have a ton of money to buy plants. You’ll go to the garden centre, come home with what looks like loads, and then it’ll look like hardly anything when you plant it in the soil. So don’t despair if it doesn’t look amazing straight away.

I’d try to improve your soil a bit. You can buy bags of manure from the garden centre. It never goes as far as you think tho.

Have a look in gardens like yours and see what other people have. Then Google what those plants are. Sometimes you can take cuttings and that’ll be cheaper.

Ok so it sounds like you want a low maintenance garden, north facing and shaded, clay soil. I agree the weeds are because of the empty beds, there is nothing to compete with the weeds so they thrive.

Best bet IMO is to start with a few evergreen shrubs as they will give you something to look at all year round and don’t take much work except the odd prune if getting too big. Sarcococca is a good one for north facing, it also has (small) scented flowers. Viburnum is another option, a big variety available from quite small to huge. Hydrangeas are happy in north facing too and will give you lovely big flowers, although deciduous rather than evergreen.

To save money, buy smaller plants rather than larger more established ones. But that means waiting till there is no risk of frost, as smaller plants are more delicate and may die.

To sort the weeds you need ground cover plants so there isn’t so much bare soil. Needs to be one which tolerates shade. Vinca could work well for you, or lamium, or tiarella. Vinca and lamium are very vigorous so will quickly spread to cover your beds - that’s good if you want quick coverage but not so good if you are trying to grow other things which might get crowded out. So decide if you are going to want to grow a big variety of plants in which case avoid these more vigorous options, or if you just want the beds filled asap.

It might also be worth putting in some bulbs like muscari or bluebells as these will again spread by themselves, but you need to wait till autumn to put these in.

Two large flowerbeds is a lot. I would be very temptedto reduce the area to something you can keep on top of - and if you can, reduce the boundary with grass as the lawn plants will be constantly encroaching. Better to have a densely planted small bed IMO.

I use a lot of "spreading" perennials like cranesbill (hardy geraniums), veronica etc as these are pretty easy in my experience (also clay) and once they have joined up into a mat, less room for weeds.

I also have hellebores and japanese anemone s in shadier parts. The anemones are definitely spreaders!

If your garden is shady beware the tendency of taller plants to flop over.

Shrubs can give you colour ar height for relatively low maintenance, but do check shade rolerance and how/when to prune.

Thank you so much! To improve the soil, should I try breaking up all the clumps of clay first and "turning the soil over" with a fork? Should I add top soil and/or compost, or is manure the best option? How much do I need to add?

I personally would just spread and leave the worms to do the mixing, but then I hate digging as it makes my back ache however careful i am!

Also, I love things like daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops. I know I've missed the boat this year, but when is the best time to plant bulbs for next?

Also, with the few daffodils I do have, when the flowers eventually die do I need to cut the stems back to the ground or just leave them be?

Plus every time you dig you are waking up a whole new generation of weed seeds!

You can plant summer bulbs now
Get some good shrubs as suggested above.

No need to turn the soil just weed and put the manure over the top the worms will do the rest

Spring bulbs are usually on sale from autumn.

I usually buy from the clearance section at garden centres much cheaper 😀

Find out if there is a local gardening club in your area.
Join.
Real gardeners are the most generous people on earth. You will get free advice, ideas, seeds, cuttings and even plants!!
They know what grows easily and successfully in your area and in your soil type. You dont have to become Monty Don, but in time you will learn and get pleasure from your garden and it wont seem such a chore.
Dont be intimidated by anyone using Latin names, that is only for clear identification. Dont be embarrassed because you dont know anything, you join to learn!
X

It sounds much like my garden when I started out. What worked for me is turning over and then laying a thickish layer of well rotted manure over the top (really well rotted stuff, which doesn’t smell). I did that in early March and it made a real difference to the quality of the soil when it came to planting up later in spring. It also suppressed weeds. I do this every year.

I would recommend shrubs, and roses for colour. Roses that do well in my north facing garden are Olivia Rose Austin and Queen of Sweden - aside from pruning in February, I don’t do much else and they flower all summer long. Foxgloves also do well.

For spring bulbs, plant in autumn/early winter.

Good luck!

Thanks! Does turning over the soil with a fork do any harm? I know it sounds strange, but I quite enjoy it as it makes the beds look nicer (being clay the soil has a tendency to look quite dry and hard otherwise).

It does provide ideal growing ground for your weeds.
Leaving a thick layer of manure will help with weed suppression.

How empty are the flower beds?
You could put weed suppressant membrane down with mulch on top and plant some large shrubs.
It was be much less maintenance.

Thank you! Would something like this work?

www.wickes.co.uk/Gro-Sure-Peat-Free-Farmyard-Manure---50L/p/132290

Also, I've never used manure before - does it smell or attract lots of flies?

My young children also like to dig in the flower beds sometimes - so maybe compost would be a better option to help improve soil quality?

Yeah I use one like that. If you don’t want manure you can also buy soil improver or compost. It did have a slight pong for a day but I think it’s been treated so it’s not like brand new manure! No flies.

I have a very shady bit of the garden with clay soil. Two plants that have grown well are a traditional fuschia and bleeding heart. Both come back every year. Also brunnera Jack Frost which also comes back every year. Don’t forget about spring bulbs too. They need planting in the autumn time but are pretty cheap if you get them off eBay or from the supermarket. It’s so nice to have the first signs of spring coming up each year!

It sounds a lot like my garden too and I really despaired at first with it but it's so much better a couple of years on! Things that helped were:

I don't dig over the soil as it just brings more weed roots up to the surface to thrive. I removed the worst of them and then covered the whole area with cardboard, wet the cardboard with the hosepipe then put a thick layer of bark chippings down. The cardboard and bark really suppress the weeds if you lay it thick enough and eventually rot down into the soil and help improve it. Any weeds that do pop up are much easier to get out.

When you want to plant in your bed, it's easy to pull the bark back, make a hole in the cardboard and plant into the soil underneath that then move everything back.

I use mostly evergreens for structure, lots do well in shade e.g. Fatsia Japonica, Aucuba, Viburnum..... just take a look online at the RHS website where you can search plants by different filters.

Inbetween the evergreens I plant bulbs to flower at different times e.g snowdrops and crocus in winter, daffodils in spring, followed by tulips then alliums. They provide lots of interest and change things up a bit. When your daffodils etc finish flowering just pull off the head of the flower and don't cut the leaves, leave them to die back as this is what feeds the bulb and gives you a good display the following year.

If you have a lawn, keep that mown as I find if the lawn looks tidy....the whole garden looks much better.

You aren’t too late to plant bulbs like ranunculus, anemone which would do better in sun but will do fine in a north facing garden - I have one.

As you dig up the weeds, give the soil a bit of a digging over, and add any kind of soil improver, manure, or compost. If you have the option a local farm shop may be able to deliver some bags to you, and it will be cheaper than a garden centre.

It will take a few years for the weeds to diminish, and you will always have weed growth at this time of year. It's a forth bridge kind of job, but the more you keep on top of them, the less you have every year.

As others have said a couple of shrubs will be your friends, find something leafy/flowery. I have a lot of roses underplanted with geraniums, helleniums, foxgloves, pulmoneria, canterbury bells, penstomens, brunnera, hostas, oriental poppies, echinops, verbena, asters, all of which come up year after year, seed around, and cover the soil well.

Good, easy evergreens like chosiya and fatsia japonica work well. What about rose carpet? Rose likes clay and would fill a lot of space and give colour/flowers.

Is your lawn all one section with no barriers. If so, consider a robotic lawnmower (can be had for sub £300). Your lawn would always look good (might need to strim the edges still though) but all the saved time from no mowing could let you do the weeding etc.

Some good suggestions in the thread.

Are there shrubs/bushes already? It's worth getting a plant ID app. Then you can look up pruning advice. Some eg. buddleia can be pruned now.

Have a look at a garden centre or supermarket for bulbs, plants you like the look of for inspiration. You could buy a few bedding plants like primroses, pansies to add some colour while waiting for summer things to come in. Garden TV programmes (Gardeners world on iPlayer, and the redesign type ones) might give you some ideas too.

I don’t clear the garden till it’s consistently warm in late March. You will disturb hibernating animals and insects, then they’ll freeze to death.

Your spring bulbs want planting about Oct-Nov, but March is a good time to plant summer flowering bulbs.

Don't dig anything! Look up no dig on YouTube. Why would you dig?

It doesn't have to be manure, just get a big dumpy bag of compost (cost me £50) and spread it in a layer over both beds.

The bulbs you say you like are not really what you would put in a flowerbed. You want to look out for shrubs and perennials.

Shrub roses, geraniums, peonies, verbenas, poppies, sedums,