Complete Novice - need advice

[MrsMattie]

Excuse lengthy post!

We moved into our house 18 mths ago and have done nothing to the garden since, bar mowing the lawn once. It is a 70ft west facing garden with a fairly overgrown, unkempt lawn (dead in places) and lots of tatty mature shrubs in the borders, plus the borders nearer to the house are pretty much bare- stuff died or got trampled when our extension was built. I want to tidy it up and think we're going to have to get a gardener in initially (argh! more money...), but would like to have an idea of what to say to him/her, as I find the ones near us generally get carried away with ideas (and sky high prices) if you give them a free reign to 'landscape' a garden.

I want to add more shrubs to the borders where they look scrappy or have died. What sort of thing should I be looking at? I would also dearly like to add some colour somewhere in the garden. But what and where? And lastly, I would like loads of herbs in the borders near the house - stuff that smells good and can be used for cooking. Any ideas?

Also - how often should I get a gardener in to maintain it all? And what can I - a novice with maybe a couple of hours a week to spend in the garden - do myself? I'd like to do at least something.

We also have a small front garden that is full of funny little shrubs that I quite like but have no idea how to look after - or even what they are. There are gaps between some of the shrubs that I would like to plant more stuff in. For instance the previous owners have dotter bulbs about the pace so that daffodils and snowdrops are starting to appear sprinkled throughout the shrubs - looks lovely - would like to do more 'seasonal' stuff like this, but have NO idea where to start.

Any advice or ideas?

Sorry for the long waffle!

First off, I'd get a good gardening book and try and identify some of the things you've got and the ones you like.

I have no ideas about gardeners, never having used one, but if you give him/her a budget they shouldn't go over, ie build you a giant gazebo you didn't want.

I'm not expert, but I think the type of soil you have will determine a lot of what you should plant there. You can get soil testing kits from garden centres which tell you the ph, some plants prefer more acidic soils, others prefer more alkaline. Any gardner worth his salt should be able to advise you on things like that.

If you want some colour, try and think about what colours you'd like, do you want to stick to one theme (pinks, blues, yellows) or do you want a riot of colour. If you're doing it yourself, try and research some plants that will give you colour all year round, ie some flower earlier than others, some are winter flowering, some have attractive foliage/bark that can add interest in winter.

Herb wise... personally I'd have chives, parsley, sage and thyme in a herb garden, basil in pots (so you can take them in when it's cold, it's not frost tolerant) and a rosemary shurb somewhere. You can start with those and then try more exotic varieties of thyme and things like tarragon. Herbs IME are pretty hardy and easy to grow. Just buy small plants at a nursery and put them in a hole, and water occasionally.

I'll have a think and see if I can come up with any other ideas...

You also have to think about how much sunlight you get, some plants hate full sun, some love it. What's the drainage like? Does the soil stay waterlogged for a long time after it's rained? Again there are different plants that suit different types of drainage, some love a good boggy area, others prefer to be dryer.

Thanks so much HF!

I'd like a 'riot of colour' (great phrase!) if possible. It would be nice to have some stuff that was all-year-round, and some stuff that was seasonal, but that might be asking too much.

Think I might attempt the herbs this weekend! We have an enormous rosemary bush in our front garden that smells gorgeous. Everyone comments on it. I'd like to recreate that effect in our back garden, too.

What about having potted plants / hanging baskets? Are they naff? What sort of things could I grow in big pots near the patio doors? And lastly (promise!) - what about climbers? We have a horrible new fence to the sid eof the house that looks so bare and unfriendly. Would love to have something pretty snaking up it.

I'm thinking in stages here.... bear with me

If I was planning a garden from scratch, the plants I love and would try and include (soil and sunlight allowing) would be...

lilac smells divine, absolutely lovely.

peony absolutely gorgeous giant flowers, I love the red ones but they come in lots of colours.

Lavender shrubs, pretty easy to grow and are drought tolerant.

agapanthus planted in large drifts these look amazing.

Roses, you can't go wrong with them and there's a rose to suit just about everywhere, standard shrubs, climbers, minature, traditional, sweet smelling.

If you've got a nice sunny wall you can grow Jasmine which is lovely and smells gorgeous in the summer evenings.

grasses can add some winter colour.

MrsMattie - are you in London? I know a lot of good gardeners (I used to be one until the lure of mammon need to pay my mortgage dragged me back to the City) who would charge by the hour (£12-15) to do basic stuff like identify your plants and give you some tips. You should be able to do most basic maintenance yourself.

Climbers - jasmine grows like a weed and smells gorgeous (if a bit sickly). Otherwise I have golden hops in my garden which are pretty and have hops in the summer/autumn. Passionflower is also a rampant beast. Montana (spring flowering clematis) goes crazy once it gets going but takes a few years.

Gardening is actually dead easy really once you've got a bit of practice.

There's lots of debates about hanging baskets, personally I quite like them but it depends what you put in them. I would try to avoid the pub garden look (lots of different coloured petunias) and plant something unusual in them, things like trailing pelargoniums look lovely especially when mixed with lobelias in a contrasting colour.

My mum and dad have got a giant bottle brush plant in a tub on their patio, it looks great and it's really unusual. You could also try camellias or azaleas in pots as they like quite acidic soil, which most people don't have, and in pots you can plant them in ericacious compost (sp?) which they need, but other plants can't survive in.

If your fence is facing the right direction you could always grow a nice vine on it, you can always grow the jasmine and passion flower over the top of the vine for added interest. If you don't like the smell of jasmine, you could try and hunt down a blue jasmine, they're beautiful a really pretty blue, but they don't smell.

For bedding.. I love sweet williams also known as dianthus, phlox which smell amazing, snap dragons (good for creating your riot of colour), some varieties of dahlia are lovely too.

Oh I could go on forever....

I used to while away hours designing my dream garden on the bbc garden design thingummy it might help you plan out what you want to do...

Hey there. Gotta dash off for dinner but will be back. xxx

ooh this is very interesting! we've just acquired a bit of garden and i'm a complete novice too. headfairy or others, do you know any good online gardening fora? ones that won't bite beginners' not-very-green fingers off?