Completely new to gardening! Hello from Bedfordshire

Hi!

I’m really excited to join this forum and hopefully learn a lot! I have never had a garden before and have now just bought a house with my partner with quite a large garden and am feeling a little overwhelmed so please forgive me for any silly questions!

My first question is can anyone recommend any beginner resources on gardening basics? (Like what tool to use for what, when to plant, when to mow etc!). I would really appreciate any help, I’m so willing to learn and put the hard work in but just don’t know where to start.

Thanks!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner trowelanderror. Congratulations on your new home.

GC has a forum especially for those like yourself that are new to gardening. All questions will be answered for you and none are considered silly, we all had to start somewhere and we're all still learning.

NEW Gardeners ! | Gardeners Corner - The Friendly Gardening Forum

 

Hi @Trowelanderror

You can pick up a lot of knowledge from reading the different forums here. I also like going back on the old posts when I have time. I google any terms I don’t know.

I look up any plants I fancy, or need to maintain, on the RHS website to see if the height, spread and amount of sun, type of soil required are suitable, when they flower, how to look after them, possible pests etc.

I look at reviews for tools from people who have bought & used them, Amazon is good for that with lots of reviews, and there is a forum here as well. I’m not sure whether you have a new build or an already established garden, it depends what you have in your garden as to what you will want to use.

I have found Gardeners World website has some useful guides in the advice section for when & how to do things. RHS has an app that may also help.There is a forum here for lawns.

And just to also say, excellent name choice!

I hope you enjoy your garden and new home.

 

Hi and Welcome,

Assuming your 'new' garden is an established one by a previous owner rather than a new build ?

It would be good if you could post a pic of the garden as we might be able to better point you in the right direction eg if you have a lawn, choosing the right type and size mower etc.

Think the keynote is enjoy it, don't rush into buying lots of tools you will never use, but sit in your garden and get the feel of it and plan how you want to see and develop it for the future , eg just ornamental, fruit and veg, kids play area etc etc

 

There used to be plenty of good basic "month by month" types of gardening books around, but I don't know whether they're still available new. One that I have is Geoff Hamilton's Year in your Garden which was compiled after he died, from columns that he used to write for a newspaper - a second-hand copy would only be a few quid. Alan Titchmarsh did some too e.g. this one .
"Beechgrove Garden" on the telly also does some good sections on basics. They used to produce factsheets as well, the archive is here.
These days it's probably all Youtube and blogs etc so maybe someone else can point you towards those.

 

Welcome @Trowelanderror.

Something I did in the first year of a new garden is…do nothing much. I waited to see what was growing, identified them and noted what was good, bad or ugly. I also noticed the sun direction and what the soil was like.

It is also worth considering what you actually want from and in the garden (seating areas, play areas, wildlife, edibles, grass etc) and see if that matches what you have in any way. I soon realised why there were mature shrubs and mostly green in my garden, when I tried planting and things were eaten by slugs! Now my edibles and delicate plants are all in pots!

If you have grass, that can be kept trimmed and edged first off. If you have a seating area - do some pots with annual bedding plants for instant colour and a pleasant place to watch, ponder and make notes.

Post some pics and we can help you identify plants and make suggestions. Most of all - welcome to the gardening family!

 

Hi, thank you all so much for the warm welcome and sorry for the delay in replying. The move meant no internet connection for a few days! I've ordered a one of the recommended books so I'm hoping that will be a good start!

It's not a new build and its a long but thin garden with three sections. I'd love for the first section to be a nice lawn with flower beds and plant borders. In the middle section I'd like to grow some vegetables and hopefully some roses. The third section is concreted so the plan is to set up a decent size shed and a small chicken coop.

I'll (try to) upload a couple of pictures on this thread, currently I've just been clearing weeds and brambles but if I leave it for a couple of days they're back again. The lawn is very over grown in some patches and bare in others. A friend has let me borrow their lawn mower for now so I will use that in the next couple of days to cut it to one level and then maybe treat it with lawn feed?



I also think there is a lot of ivy in the garden, including going up a conifer tree, is it best to cut the ivy back before it damages the tree? And also, how do I know the soil type?

Thanks!

 

Ivy gets a bad press. It only uses trees as a support and doesn’t suck the life out of the tree or anything like that. And if it’s reasonably thick and bushy it makes a popular nesting spot for any number of birds. Last year we had a song thrush nesting in some ivy on one of our trees only about a metre off the ground.

 

Ah I didn’t realise that, I thought that under the ivy the tree would be dead and I didn’t fancy having a half dead conifer in the garden, especially because it’s so large. I definitely don’t want to disturb any wildlife, if anything I want to encourage it

 

Here’s a little article about ivy, written by the RSPB.

All about Ivy.

And the flowers on ivy are very popular with bees, and the berries are popular with the birds.

English ivy: berry good for birds

 

That’s going to be a lovely garden once you get it all ship shape.

 

Welcome to the forum and be assured that all gardeners started from scratch at some time and went through many failures before success turned eventually up.

The tools I used over the years with a garden in similar constellation were a wheelbarrow, a spate, a fork, a kitchen scissor, secateurs for the delicate job that need a sharp cut in one go, a hand trowel, a lawn rake, a leaf rake, and finally the most important tool, a paving knife which allows me to take out weeds and rough up the surface of the soil.
OH bought in 2016 a rust-free spate and fork which cost each £70 (I almost fainted when I heard the price) but they are worth every penny as they don't rust. I'm sure I will die before they give up.
In 2009, I bought Burgon & Ball secateurs, which lasted 10 years. In 2019, I bought a cheaper version of secateurs half the price and they lasted only 2 years. The cheap hedge shears gave up after using it once. I spent again £36 on Burgon & Ball secateurs and £50 for hedge shears but keep both in house all the time to avoid any rust.
I would suggest you don't spend immediately money on buying tools, but start planing what to do in your lovely spot and buy with each job that you start tackling.

 

I took a spade & fork that were too heavy for me down to my local dump/recycling centre & they went into an area they have for re-sale. Nothing electrical but you might pick up some garden tools cheaply there, if your local one does the same, to start you off.