Beginners gardening for dummies

[GloriousBlue]

I was wondering if anyone could help point me in the right direction?

We grew up in an apartment, no allotment, zero experience of gardening. I mean zero.

Now I've got my own garden I've tried buying some plants or veggies but they die every time!
My 5 year old wants to help but it's the blind leading the blind.

I just want to be able to grow some pretty flowers and some useful bits for the kitchen; maybe herbs and some easy veg.

I've got a big square of grass and a small strip of soil to the side. Plus a patio at the back with a shed.
North facing unfortunately so not a great deal of sun or heat.

Talk to me as if I were 5... what do I do?!

Do I buy a big bag of soil or use what's there (it's quite dry)?
Should I just buy potted stuff?
Buy seeds and sprinkle?!

Also, tell me about the stuff I can grow that's easy and can't go wrong. Any advice so appreciated.

You need a couple of books, maybe one on flowers and another on growing veg. The 'Expert' series of books by DG Hessayon is something I mention on a very regular basis, and you can get cheap second-hand copies in charity shops and on ebay etc. The Flower Expert would be handy to start with.

With a book, you can literally start on page 1 as a complete beginner and read it from cover to cover, and learn stuff you didn't know you needed to know. You can't look something up on the internet unless you know the right question to ask, and a lot of apps and advice online tends to be global so might not be right for UK gardens.

Start by watching some gardeners world. And if you want to do something fun and easy in the meantime, get some runner beans and grow them in jam jars inside. You put kitchen roll rolled round the inside of the jar and then sandwich the bean in-between the inside of the jar and the kit hen roll and then put about 1cm inside the bottom of the jar and keep it topped up.

Also..if you see buying stuff from the garden centre,bigger plants are harder to kill. Digg a bigger hole than you think when you plant stuff and make sure you water it every other day with a whole large watering can of water for the first month after you plant it and then once a week for the first summer after that. Huge generalisations but you should keep stuff alive hopefully.

I'm no expert but how much sun your garden gets (and where) is important. It's also important how wet or dry your soil is.

Most plant labels say "partial sun and well draining soil" ...so no point buying those in my shady, soggy garden!! Lots of money and time is wasted planting things that are suitable for the plot you have.

You could plant bulbs like daffodils in late autumn and they will come up next year.

A lot of herbs are from hot sunny, dry countries so they don't do well in colder countries..a well draining planter in a sunny spot can do well.

Lavender and Rosemary do ok though...just read up on how to care for them.

Look at what is doing well in other people's gardens and use an App like "picture this" to work out what plant it is.

I don't do veggies ...but you could do carrots or spuds in a tub, they need "good" soil/compost with nutrients.

I also have got a garden recently after years of a yard so I know it's daunting.

For your son to get involved one of the easiest and most rewarding is sunflowers.

Buy a packet of seeds and some small pots or use the kind of plastic tubs you get fruit in at the supermarket (the ones with holes in the bottom). Plant the seed on its side about a cm deep (use a bag of potting compost) dead cheap from supermarkets at the moment. When the plant is getting too big for it's pot move it to a bigger one. But keep it inside on a windowsill. Once you don't think there will be any more frosts put it in a fairly big pot outside. Use a bamboo cane or similar to tie it to to keep it growing up. It will get really tall and you can have a tallest sunflower competition.

I recently bought Martha Swales's book Give it a Grow. I follow her on Instagram. She has lots of small projects in pots or on the windowsill that you can do and she has recipes for using your harvest. I'm going to try some bits with the teens to make them get off their screens at the weekend.

Thank you all who have replied already! Dome gorgeous suggestions and I'm getting excited with the potential. :D

https://thepinkshed.co.uk/?p=6949

If you understand how much sun your garden gets and what soil type it is, everything will become easier to manage. Some plants like baking sun. Some like shade. Some are ok in most places. Some plants like sandy soil that drains easily. Other plants like soil that keeps its moisture. Understanding this is the key.
When you buy plants there should be information which tells you what kind of conditions it likes as well as how big it will grow. Shrubs (bushy plants) are good to start with as they give structure to your garden. Gardeners World as someone suggested is a great starting point. The magazine is good too and often comes with free seeds. Some seeds however are tricky to grow and I wouldn’t bother trying. Look for sunflowers, nasturtiums and poppies. You can pretty much throw these on soil and get results. A nice project is to buy an obelisk and grow sweet peas up it. Loads of places are selling sweet pea plants at the moment.

I chucked some old potatoes from the fridge on crappy old soil. I didn’t even weed or dig it or anything.soil and covered them with grass clippings. Each time the stalk appeared, I covered it with more grass clippings.
imagine my suprise when it actually grew potatoes! It’s great fun to unearth them too, like digging for treasure, your child would love it Im sure.

If you go to a nice garden centre you often find staff who know lots and can’t wait to share their knowledge. Bring lots of pictures of the garden and soil and know the direction of the sun and if there is shade from trees or fences etc. also think about morning and evening sun.

The area out the back with no grass or soil, but south facing… pots could work. You can move pots around… so they could get going in the south but might appreciate the north facing garden in July and August.

re herbs. Rosemary, chives and mint grow well. Parsley and thyme can grow well for me but they can die too.

finally any neighbours with nice gardens? They have the same sun direction and soil type. You could talk to them if they are nice or snap a picture for an app/ garden centre.

Looking at what grows well in your neighbours’ gardens with similar aspect and soil type is a good place to start.