Help a novice - pruning, climbers, vegetables for a small London garden

[greenfenz]

I am trying to upskill on my gardening skills since I have a fairly basic gardener, and I am myself time poor. I have had this house a couple of years now, and this is the first year i have some time and determination to do something with it. I would appreciate your help with the following.

1. I have a fuchsia bush (pic attached) - mature, woody stems. Some of the branches are definitely dead while others have green shoots and have started flowering. It is lovely to see in summer. How much should I prune back- google told me to within 10 inches from the ground. But I dont want to now cut off any leafy branches now (appreciate i should probably have pruned in March). I like it to have a wild, dense appearance, not manicured, and it will cover an ugly fence, so I dont want to chop off too much, but do want to encourage new growth.

1. In my back garden, I am trying to get honeysuckle and clematis to climb the fence. I planted about 5 (different varieties) in autumn last year, about 1.8- 2 meters apart - you can see some in the Pic. How do I encourage these to grow and spread? The gardener has tied wires to the fence last week. Do I need more climbers, more wires? The fence faces east and will get several hours of direct sunlight in summer.

1. I have a 1.5m wide, 6m long bed which faces north. What vegetables will grow well and can I plant the seeds directly in the bed rather than growing indoors first? Last year, I tossed in some tomato, beans and corn seeds and only the tomato took. It was very prolific and I probably got around 75-80 decent sized tomatoes over summer from 3 plants (not sure if that is considered to be a good yield or not, but I was very impressed!) Also, should I try to reflect sunlight on the vegetable patch eg using an acrylic mirror placed on the fence opposite to it?

1. Suggestions on evergreen shrubs and dwarf trees welcome, especially for a south facing fence. I currently have a ceanothus, camellia, arbutus (half standard) forsythia, choisya, eunymous. Thinking of getting a dwarf apple or pear.

Thanks a lot.

Wow, I've never seen a fuchsia that size, very cool. Can't say for sure how I would treat it but when I have overgrown shrubs which I want to keep looking big and 'wild' but need cutting back I tackle one third of the branches each year, so that after 3 years they are where I want them.

With the climbers, you just need to give them time! They will take a few years to grow.

Ditto with the shrubs, do you actually have room for any more? Look at the sizes when they are fully grown, and trace them out on the ground before planting anything else. It's annoying to have to move plants because they are overcrowded just when they are starting to get established.

in 2 years, those climbers will be too big and you’ll be asking for advice on cutting them back.

the fuschia is pretty tough- you can probably just leave it and see what happens. Cut out any dead bits and the rest will grow.

for veg, I haven’t much idea. I have a small north facing garden in London and my veg always fails. Carrots work some years. Peas or beans can be ok. But slugs are always a problem when the plants are small.

If tomatoes are happy, just get more varieties of tomatoes. Corn needs a lot of sun. Rhubarb could work, it doesn't mind semi shade (mine only gets morning sun). Wild strawberries for underplanting. Raspberries. Blueberries, but you'd have to put them in a separate pot/planter with acidic soil.

I can't see the wires in the photo so won't comment on more/closer together. In my experience clematis prefers a willow trellis or chicken wire to individual wires. They like to curl around something every 5-10cm. Honeysuckle should be okay on wires though. It needs to be tied to it.