New garden - what can I put in now?

[OrlandointheWilderness]

We've just moved into a 300 year old cottage. Very rural and I like traditional I'm afraid 😂! Lots of mature shrubs, but I just wondered if there was anything I could put in now that would give a little more interest and colour!? I'm not a knowledgeable gardener tbh which probably shows!!

Don't do anything yet. See what comes up over the first year, trim back overgrown shrubs, weed and fill in gaps. Otherwise you could end up digging up lots of things which are hiding.
If you really can't wait, buy some big pots and plant them up with stuff and use them to fill the gaps while you work out a long term plan.

Agree with @Geneticsbunny . Therell be no sign of herbaceous perennials yet- see what comes up! And take photos throughout this spring and summer so you can think about adding to it next year. Observe how many hours of light different areas get in spring, summer, autumn.

Cyclamen?

I agree with first poster. Always best to wait and see what happens in the first year. There could be some mature plants waiting to come up. Peonies in particular don't like to be disturbed. I would just concentrate on weeding and pruning

Wait if you can. If you can't have some plants in pots and then you can fill in any gaps that become clear in the garden.

Put some winter pansies, polyanthus, primroses, and other spring flowers into pots for instant colour. Also buy ready potted daffodils, and hyacinths.

This !
I have a cottage garden and after a bleak muddy January, at the moment it looks relatively bare, one shrub in flower, some snowdrops and hellebores, camelia and magnolia in bud and bulbs emerging. In a month it will look very different as it is stuffed full of plants, by May it will be very pretty.

The advice is always to leave a new garden for a year, but if it's looking dull now then it will look dull next February too. Pop to the garden centre and buy something that's lovely in a pot now now - an early flowering camellia, or a host of early daffodils, or an early Daphne, or sarcococca (dull but smells divine), but keep them all in pots until you are sure you're not planting them over something that's currently dormant. You can plonk the pots on the flower beds for now.

Thanks everyone! I might do a couple of pots and I will wait and see what happens. It's been a bit neglected for a couple of years I know - everything has been cut back pretty hard so I think it might take a bit of time to see what is there.

If it's full of mature shrubs I would imagine the previous owners were keen gardeners and that they'll be other plants waiting for the right time to come up. How exciting!
Like pp have said leave the garden alone for the first year so you can see what comes up. If you want some colour, then I plant up some pots with various plants. Enjoy your new garden

First lesson in gardening - PATIENCE!

It's a very frustrating time in the garden because, as everyone has said, nothing is really happening at this time of year, not that you can see. All you can do is wait and see. However,if you go out and look closely you will probably see lots of stuff just beginning to shoot.

However, there are things you will be able to plant later in the year that will be flowering this time next year. You have plenty of time to do some research, and a few suggestions of the top of my head are:

Bulbs - crocuses, muscari, iris reticulata, which would all be popping up now, daffodils and tulips which will be next.

Shrubs - witch hazel is a lovely shrub for winter, also some viburnums will flower now. Forsythia will be out soon and Daphne (which has a wonderful scent) different rhododendrons flower at different times too. Seeing what you have already will guide you towards what new things will grow well.

I'm sure others will have more ideas,

You won't get it all right straight away, it's a constant learning process, this is a great forum and there's loads of good stuff on YouTube too.

I haven’t RTFT because I’m rushing off to work (gardener!). I agree with others saying wait to see what comes up. Take a photo each month so you can see if there are any ‘dull’ months where a bit of colour could be added in. When I bought my house a wise person told me to go to the garden centre once a month to pick up something in flower or with interesting leaves, to ensure all-year colour/interest. Time would be best spent now cutting out dead wood while it’s visible (before leaves grow) and looking after what’s there by improving soil (well rotted manure around roses for example). You could tidy edges and maybe put in clumps of colourful bulbs where they’ll be visible at the front of borders or in pots. Plant nurseries are selling daffodils, snowdrops, hyacinths etc that are coming into flower now. If you’re not confident you’d definitely benefit from hiring a professional gardener for a couple of hours to take a look at what’s there and do any jobs that need doing ahead of spring. Good luck!

I took out hundreds of primroses last year in my tiny semi detached garden. Not sure what had happened but they were everywhere! Maybe because they look like foxgloves early on I'd let them get out of hand.