An idiots guide to gardening?

[CaraMiaMonCher]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone can point in the direction of some kind of Idiots Guide to Gardening?

Perhaps a book or a calendar/diary or a website or something that will give me some basic pointers about what I should be doing in my garden each week/month of the year?

Nothing too texty/wordy/complicated as I’m a beginner at best, but I’m reasonably green fingered in that I have lots of tropical houseplants that thrive and have played around with propagation with success, etc. I also do some Floristry and have studied that at college so would like to grow some flowers in my own garden that I can cut for bouquets when needed, etc.

I have a decent sized garden but it’s all broken up into little sections due to the driveway/layout, etc. I’ve a decent sized rockery that I can plant in, as well as another patch and lots of room for containers/planters. Last year I planted lots of Geraniums in planters which looked gorgeous, but I failed at the point where I needed to take the bulbs out of the soil before the first frost to overwinter them, etc. I need cues and reminders.

Is it a terribly bad idea to just use those mixed “wild flower” seed packets on a patch of soil that tends to get full of weeds very rapidly, I fear I’ll just end up with even more weeds and no actual flowers? Are there any flower seeds that will basically grow anywhere without much TLC?

Thank you.

First thing you need to do is find out what kind of soil you have. You can get kits from the garden centre to test it.
Different plants grow in different types of soil, azaleas love clay wheras pinks love chalky soil that is well drained. If you plant the wrong plants in the wrong soil they will probably die. Then you have plants for a shady spot - ferns, christmas roses, and plants for full sun like roses and most flowers.

If you get these basics right things will grow well.
Look at the label on the plant about how big the plant will grow and don't plant anything permanent within that diameter. Any gaps can be filled with annual plants.
I chuck flower seeds out all over the place in October and they come up early in summer, if you throw them around in January they will come up later.
Things like Nigella seeds and most seeds actually don't even need to be planted, if you sprinkle them on the top they will just come up. You can thin them out later if there are too many.
I never bother potting them up, I just put them straight on the soil.
I only grow slug resistant plants - anything else is too much bother and slug bait kills birds. There is a list on the internet.
You need a basic structure of climbers and tall plants like roses and clematis at the back with the medium and shorter plants at the front and a basic structure of trees, shrubs.

Excellent, I’m going to the garden centre for lunch this afternoon as it happens so I’ll look for one of these soil testing kits.

Will digest the rest of your advice too!

Start watching gardeners world on bbc1 on a Friday evening.

Apologies gardeners world is on bbc2 - but not yet - probably due to restart any week though as we go into spring.

@CaraMiaMonCher I mention these books at every opportunity on here, and there are loads of them, all basic and straightforward. The 'Expert' series by DG Hessayon. There's ones on flowers, shrubs, containers, vegetables, evergreens, lawns, you name it, there's a book about it. They are really easy to get hold of - it is rare to go into a charity shop and not find one, and ebay is stacked out with the things, all really cheap.

I honestly think books are better than the internet, because it is all there, chapter by chapter, and you learn as you go. Looking things up online is fine, but only if you already know what you need to learn in the first place!