Blank canvas

[DeepfriedPizza]

Our garden is currently just decking with a rectangle of grass. We have been trying to get it re-done all year but with tradespeople not turning up when they say etc it is only finally being started today.

The layout will be a large patio right at the back door and then grass with a large border for planting.

The plan was to put some bulbs in early autumn, tulips, allium and hyacinth then next spring we were going to plant some shrubs which should grow tall over the years

My question is, is it now going to be too late to plant the bulbs? The garden should be complete by next weekend. Is there anything else you would do now?

Plenty of time for bulbs. Especially tulips - they are better planted after the weather turns cold.

And I'd get bare root shrubs to plant over winter rather than waiting for spring.

Agree about planting shrubs now too. Then they'll have the cooler, wetter months to bed in. They'll be ready to romp away come spring.

You could also do 'admin' jobs like putting in a water butt and any trellis you'll need for climbers (before all the borders fill with plants). I'd also spend some time and money on improving the soil by laying a good old load of manure/mulch/compost over all the beds. The winter rains and frosts will then break this down into your soil saving you digging it in.

If you do all that, come spring you'll have a garden of thriving shrubs, beautiful bulbs and all the infrastructure in so you can just enjoy the fun bit. How exciting!

Great, that's the sort of thing I am looking for.

@SeaPool Good idea about the manure etc. The company we have used are also gardeners who offered to do planting for us but I wanted to do it myself but may ask them to do the manure