What would you do with this garden?

[Smellz714]

I have about £100 I can spend on plants. Have a few ferns and shrubs in pots that I can put out. I have minimal knowledge but a lot of enthusiasm! Everything in there has been put in by me over the past 3 years or so. It's north west ish facing and clay soil. Just patched up some bare pits of lawn - planning on mowing it soon!

Trees are too expensive? Rubbish. You can pick them up in supermarkets these days. I don’t know why they get such bad press. It’s weird.

Here’s a bit of inspiration. First photo was 2019 and second 2023. I don’t think there’s a plant in there that cost more than £5.

I would buy low maintainance perennials. aliums, daffodils, poppies, foxgloves, crocuses are good. things like nasturtiums grow like weeds of seeds are scattered. you could use the fence as support for something like clematis?
you could also turn part of your lawn until wildflower patch although this can look unattractive in the summer.
something evergreen might be nice. winterbox ?

You can get bare rooted apple trees for £20. They will fruit in a couple of years.

@TwigTheWonderKid thanks for the link, I was going to have a look at bare rooted.. had no idea what it meant.

@pandasorous definitely going clematis on the back fence, I have a friend who has a beautiful one round the corner from me so I know they do well, going to bug her for a cutting! I have a few foxgloves they've gone sky high this year, definitely want some more. I've been put off wild flower seeds, I planted some a few years back and seemed to get nothing but the odd weed. There's definitely enough space to section off for something like that though.

@HeddaGarbled thank you! What a beautiful garden.

I've heard Bunny Guinness suggest that buying a younger tree (and therefore cheaper tree) is better anyway - it takes less time to settle in and will often grow much quicker than a more mature purchase - often outpacing it.

Get familiar with your local garden centres - they will often have reduced sections which have lots of plants much cheaper. Especially if they've just flowered/gone over & don't look great. Visit every few weeks to see what's been added.
Just today I've been to one & got 5 plants reduced including a very healthy David Austin Rose for half price.
Ours was a new build 12 years ago - just turf & soil on top of hardcore (built on the remains of a plant nursery). It's flourishing now; & I've only really gotten into gardening properly in the last few years since the DC have got older.
Agree that perennials are your best better - look into what's available, what suits your garden, what you like.
A fruit tree is great too - we have a cherry & last year added a plum. We grow quite a bit of fruit.

Exactly @CupboardTV Young trees are very cheap.

Painting the wall on the neighbouring garage cream would make a huge difference and not cost too much.

@Sago1 that is a terrific idea.

Agree with trees! And yes get your shrubs in the ground. Really solid clay can finish off ferns though so if they're happy in pots keep them there until you've improved the soil of their bed for a year or so.

Trees cheaper bare root in winter, so a job for now: buy a packet each of sweet williams, foxgloves, wallflowers and sweet rocket (biennials). Sow a tray of each, they can stay outside, and carefully put each into a little pot or module when big enough to handle. Then plant them all out in September. You'll have a garden full of flowers next spring/early summer.

Morrisons is good value for plants.

In my view there ought to be careful consideration prior to planting fruit trees, cheap as they may be. They do require specific care and lots of pruning; left to their own devices, they will produce small fruit, many inedible, which mostly feed birds that leave a mess, and will be full of worms. When they fall, they rot and make further mess, smell and attract wasps. They are very sensitive to bad weather - a late frost is enough to wipe your crop for the year.

I say this as born and bred apple and pear orchard farming stock (we had 8,000 trees, I was planting and pruning them before I was in double digits) - fruit trees are a commitment, and can be a liability in a small urban garden. There are many more attractive and less care-intensive trees that I’d go for instead.