First Time Garden Owner Tips

[Jaggy1]

Hi Everyone!

We are getting my the keys to our house tomorrow & I have never had a garden before! I will try & attach a picture of the front garden at the moment, might take a while to load in.
I was just looking for basic, beginner, talk to me like I’m 5 help on what to do with this! I’d love the grass nice & some colourful plants/flowers around the soil parts. I just don’t know how to weed it etc or where to start!

thanks so much if you can help at all!

How exciting for you. Do you know where the garden is in relation to the sun? And what part of the country is it in? That will help determine what plants will thrive in your borders. Also if you know (or can ask the EA) what kind of soil you have.

It’s lovely that you are so exited to get a garden, and that is certainly a blank canvas! It looks like anything you do will be an improvement.

You sort of need to know what sort of soil you have and how sunny, dry it is. I’d suggest you take a look at the sort of things your neighbours are growing - that will give you an idea. But don’t worry about it too much.

But foremost to remember gardening should be fun and it’s a very forgiving hobby. You can try out anything, and if it doesn’t work then you change it later down the line.

I find keeping a grass area reasonably mown and the edges neat improves the look no end - unless you are really into wildlife gardening (which tends to look more untidy), but most people like a neat front garden. I’d also weed out anything in the paths. My only hard and fast rule is- don’t use weed killers. Hand weeding on a sunny day is very therapeutic.

Have fun.

I watched gardeners world 35 years ago when i had my first garden - good for inspiration and walks you through the different seasons.

Thanks guys! I am excited just a bit wary of poking about it with no clue what I’m doing 🤣

No idea about the type of soil but the back garden is south facing so I don’t imagine this gets much sun! We’re in Glasgow too.

I think that we are all a bit traumatised by yesterday's thread where somebody wanted to rip out a beautiful garden. How nice to have somebody else ask for advice on how to make a garden better!
Number One: design the space. What do you want or need from it? I know you want grass and colour, but what about bins etc? Are you going to change anything radical e.g. hedge, path, boundary to stop people taking the short cut? - these are major things that should be done first. What feeling do you want from the space? - natural / controlled, modern / romantic, etc. Think about marrying the garden design to the house architecture.
As others have said, you can wish all you want, but if Mother Nature is not with you then you will fail. The biggest limiting factors are sun (or lack of) and soil (what sort - clay, sand, etc). Meanwhile, do your best to improve the soil.

South facing will be sunny, north sunny at the end of the garden. As others have said get to know your soil first. There are ways of assessing it by seeing how it responds to rolling in a ball etc, you can find it online. Have a wander around the area to see what plants do well. You might even start a conversation with a neighbour if you spot something you like. There's a couple of books called The First Time Garden and First Time Planting by Geoff Hamilton which are undoubtedly out of print but probably available second hand.

Follow some gardeners on your socials, preferably ones near you that have a similar soil and climate. Watch Gardener's World, and Beechgrove Garden (which is Scottish).

Plant things that you like, front gardens can be good for growing veg.

What's the back garden like? There might be things you can divide (split in 2 or 3) and plant in the front, it'll save you money and trips to the garden centre.

Build up slowly. Accept that it might take a few years to fill the space rather than spending loads of money now and regretting it later. Take cuttings from friends if they have things you like that can be propagated.
For colour this year maybe some bedding plants in pots and you can add flowering perennials and shrubs when you’ve decided what you like.
Enjoy and take loads of photos so you can look back at your progress!

Go onto Ebay and buy a second-hand copy of 'The Flower Expert' by DG Hessayon. Read it from cover to cover. There is absolutely nothing on the internet that can teach a first-time gardener as much about gardening (or as quickly) as reading that book.

Trust me on this one. 🙂

Then add to your collection with 'The Tree & Shrub Expert' and 'The Lawn Expert', followed by as many of the others you need. There are about a dozen of them.

Those books were how I learnt to garden! They are great.