Novice wanting a colourful garden

[Petra42]

Hi, completely beginner here but wanting a colourful garden, preferably all year round. I love walking down my road seeing bright pink blossoms, and in an ideal world I'd have frangipani (though not possible here in uk). I love bright colours like yellows and pinks!

Where should I start? The beds are there but need weeding and I just wouldn't know what to pick or where to start. Do I just buy the seeds and add the water?

All I really have is the stump of a bay tree which has previously gotten overgrown and has been cut down. But id definitely prefer colour...

Commenting because I am also new with gardening and seem to be terrible at it and need help! Last year I cleared an incredibly overgrown weedy flower bed, I felt like I dug down so deep to remove everything, I planted some nice flowers but the weeds! They just constantly came back, I would be weeding every week but they just didn’t stop coming. During winter I just gave up and left it to fend for itself and now the nice plants are dead and it’s just an overgrown weedy mess again and I just feel helpless.

Definitely need some help!

A couple of things it would be useful to know - roughly where are you? The weather tends to vary from North to South or East to West UK so some plants do better in some areas than others, and not all MN members are in the UK! Also does your garden get mostly sun, mostly shade, or a mixture? Bonus question: do you know what kind of soil you have? Is it very difficult to dig in, and almost solid when it dries out (clay) or lighter and sandier?

I’ve dug everything out of my garden and now need to fill it back up again. I’m currently looking at green structures, ie permanent green shrubs and bushes to give the garden its sense of proportion and then hole to fill it up with hardy perennials before I bung in the seeds. Im obsessed with ilex (more hardy than box but sooooo expensive) and hydrangeas at the moment.

Dig in lots of new topsoil ( from the garden centre).
You need some shrubs to add structure as well as flowers grown from seed.
I heartily recommend Urban Jungle by Monty Don. It's got everything you need to know and is broken down in very useful categories.

I would ask your neighbours the names of any flowers you like, or go to a garden centre every month for a year and find out the names of plants that are in flower that you like.

Then research and grow some of those plants, either from seed, or the more expensive option of buy them in pots. Dig out the bay stump, then grow them in a border in large clumps, with the tallest at the back (they'll tell you their height on the pot / seed packet etc).

Another question - how much space do you have? I'd start with thinking about shrubs and then work round that. Could you fit in one or two small trees? You can get miniature flowering cherries or if you have a bit more space I'd get an ornamental crab apple and a rowan tree (Sorbus) with pink or white berries, for colour in spring and autumn. Might be better to wait with trees as they can be pricy and they are cheaper to buy as bare root in winter, also they establish better like that.
If you have sunshine and don't have heavy clay soil Ceanothus are beautiful (blue flowers in spring). Also you can get roses (shrubs and climbers) for all sorts of conditions. It's worth doing research for which ones are long flowering and easy to grow. It's not subtle, but I had a yellow-leaved Choisya shrub that provided cheery colour all year round.
In autumn plant lots of bulbs for spring, but remember tulips probably won't come back for a second year. I won't recommend perennials as it depends so much on your garden conditions which ones would work for you - looking in your neighbours' gardens is a good idea!

Get a good hoe and use that at least once a week to control weeds rather than trying to dig them out.

I think that gardening is similar to interior design. You wouldn't look at a bare sitting room and say, "I'm going to put a vase of flowers in there." You'd first assess the room for size, shape, light, etc (see Gliblet's post) then you would decide what furniture and permanent features you want in there (see MatrhewWilliamson) then think about soft furnishings (GooseberryBeret) and then finally ... you would finish with a vase of flowers.

I love gardening and gardens, but weep seeing posts saying “oh just noticed I have a garden! I want it lovely! What do I do to do that right now?”

Gardening is a long term ongoing process, not a one-off. Winter colour is much more sparse and dainty than summer colour. Weeds are a constant factor. Gardens need attention and ongoing “housework”.

Find a gardening friend and have a long look round your garden with them. Consider it a long term project. Do a bit at a time. Watch programs and list over pictures in magazines. Visit ngs gardens this summer. And keep up the gardening “housework” - mow the grass, weed the borders, water the pots, mend the fence.

@olderbutwiser People wanting to make their gardens look nice is good! Even though it isn't going to happen overnight. So many front gardens paved over round here, including really posh houses with fancy paving slabs, or even tarmac (houses split into flats, landlord clearly doesn't care). Now THAT'S sad.

@GooseberryBeret oh absolutely, you are preaching to the converted here. I wish I could pop round to everyone who puts up this kind of post and help them get started!

Thanks all, so im in london and have a medium sized garden, just grass. Years ago I got it shaped and lots of flowers but they died due to me not having a clue. I have no garden friends though am always tempted to ask random houses where they have such a lovely front. My front is paved and I feel like it has no kerb appeal sadly but I really want to make it lovely at the back and front.

Gardening is a long term ongoing process, not a one-off.
Agreed.
OP, don't think about doing the whole garden in one go, in a mad rush. Divide it (in your mind) and do it bit-by-bit, learning as you go along..
You could start on the front garden as I assume that it's smaller and less daunting. You'll be surprised how many people will stop by to chat and offer advice.

I'm just in the process of redesigning my garden, after I moved into a small terrace last year, so happy to share my tips as I go, @Petra42 .

I've started by working out where I want the seating, which is dependent on the sun. So, sunny morning, where do you want to sit and drink coffee? Put a seat and table there. What can you see? Imagine an interesting view - so a focal point, like a bird bath, or a rose arch.

Then, imagine where the shrubs/trees will go (I would wait until the autumn to plant these), I like perennials because they come back each year and I'm lazy. Then I add annuals (the plants you see people buy in little multipacks) in pots and move them.

So, this weekend, I've decided on my coffee spot, added pots with supermarket herbs around it - instantly looks better.

Pm me if you want.

Here’s some long flowering plants which look exotic lavatera, hibiscus, Japanese anemone, crocosmia. Also add in erysium Bowles mauve dotted through.

And hollyhocks