Newbie - garden makeover - help please!

My blue fence is finally done! Probably not to everyone's taste but I love it and it looks lovely when the sun shines. Pics taken after the sun calmed down a bit. Excuse the mess in the rest of the garden!

 

Its looking really good now. Whats the plans for plants?

What about a minimalist look with just a few bamboos in containers and a palm or two?

 

Thank you!

Not entirely sure about plants - day off on Wednesday and will be getting some of that sorted. I definitely want pots of herbs (I can't cope with buying herbs). And I'd like a bit of colour in the back planter - would have to be something that likes shade though! I'm a complete newbie to plants though.

 

It's really coming on a treat and I love the raised bed you have made; well done!

Try the RHS Plant Selector page. Just select all the options e.g. shade, soil, garden style etc., and it will bring up a selection of recommended plants
One piece of advice though, as tempting as it is, try not to rush everything when it comes to buying plants

 

I love Japanese anemones in shade, I know they can take over but so nice to have in dry shady spots and there are some pretty varieties

 

Thanks all for your advice. Busy day today Jet washed the garden so its now looking lovely and clean. Photos don't do it justice as it was raining and you can't really see the cleanness in the rain! Jet washing did highlight a potential issue with drainage though - need to take up all the decking to see if there is actually a drain somewhere!

Fitted the raised bed (with difficulty thanks to the proximity to concreted posts) and did lots of planting of the raised bed and pots!

When it dries up I'll be redoing all the masonry in white. The border on the left isn't planted yet as that was all gravel and the thickest most horrible clay soil. So will be mixing it all with compost over the next few weeks etc and then planting. Lots of the stuff for that border are annuals though, as want to see how the garden develops and then pick some nice shrubs etc.

 

Dry photo of the cleaned up patio - still needs relaying but look the actual colour of the slabs is visible Excuse the dogs, they were standing there while I was trying to take a photo and refusing to budge.

 

Loving your dogs posing on the cleaned up patio slabs

 

I was away on the weekend so not got loads done but this evening I've done some painting of the masonry. Needs another coat and I haven't gone right down to the bottom yet as we need to take up all those decking tiles. But here's a pic anyway!

 

What a difference Igloo! It looks like a garden now.

 

Thanks all I absolutely love my little garden now! Our soil (once the endless gravel was dug up) is horrible heavy clay so I spent some time today breaking up clay lumps and mixing in compost to the sleeper border on the left. I then planted some lavender and some annuals. Hope the soil will be okay now - there are still some lumps but I was struggling to get them any smaller. And I have very little idea what I'm doing bar what I've read online!!!

Lovely to have some colour out there though. Here's the sleeper border:


And this is the raised bed (excuse the bamboo sticks, the dogs are still learning that you're not meant to climb in the border!!). These are nearly all perennials.


And some photos of my various pots.



The tree behind the garden is finally starting to leaf out and I think it may be an Ash. Seriously hoping it doesn't shade the whole garden!

 

You've done tremendous work on your garden already igloo, you should be chuffed.

 

Not really much left to do in the garden now Just been enjoying it, having barbeques and watching the plants grow!

Some photos!








The raised border is almost big enough to prevent the dogs getting in it but we now have the issue of one of the dogs cocking his leg on it and killing things... so strategically placed bamboo sticks still remain :D


This border still lacks plants and I had some serious slug issues, I plan to do it properly next year. But the lavender is doing well.

 

It's looking great igloo. Do you have plans for any climbers, I think they would take the bareness off the fences?