Is it too late to start planting borders?

Hi all,

I'm very new to gardening and I have some new, bare borders and beds in my garden at the moment and I was hoping for advice on a couple of things.

Is it too late in the season to start planting the borders, many of the plants, websites etc. seem to advise spring for most planting?

The soil is currently "industrial clay" as I would describe it. Should I just concentrate on turning that into something useable and sustainable this year?

Finally, if leaving things till spring is the best option option can I buy some plants/ shrubs just now and grow in pots until next year? Just to start collecting and save having to buy so much next year.

Thanks, Patrick

 

Thanks @JWK that's good advice. My local council offers free compost, soil conditioner I had been hoping to utilise some of that. Would that be a good start and should I still add in some mushroom compost on top of it?

I'm glad I can start planting out in containers just now in preparation for the spring, It will give a much needed bit of colour to the patios.

 

to GC, Patrick

If you use the council free compost it would be a good start indeed and if you can get hold of mushroom compost, add it as well.

Yes, do start your shrubs off in containers for now and if you improve your soil between now and Spring, you will be able to plant them out. The beauty being, you can move them around between now and then and see where they look best

Do take notice of the plant label which will tell you which aspect the plant prefers.

Actually, now is a brilliant time to begin to take notice of your garden. At the moment, it will be getting the most sun it is going to get, so, take note of the sunny parts of your garden (morning, noon and afternoon) and then do that from now until next Spring. During the winter, you may be surprised how comparatively little sun you get in places. All that will help you when you come to plant your containers in the Spring because you will have pretty good idea of the shadiest and sunniest areas.

If you are able to post any pictures of your garden space/patio that may help members when they offer advice.

 

Excellent @"M" and @JWK I'll start preparing with the council and mushroom compost, to be honest that may take me until the spring!!

Here is a couple of pictures of the borders etc. There are another couple in my intro thread. Because my next question will be "what will I plant????"

 

Well: what do you fancy!!??? What style do you favour? Contemporary? Cottage? Urban? Jungle?

My knee jerk when I saw your shed and bench was that you have a seaside look to your garden; so, did you want a "coastal" theme?

To be fair, your borders are not particularly deep, so you won't be able to fit a large selection of anything in them. Most shrubs will soon fill that depth and then spread over your bricks and onto your lawn; something which you may wish to think about?
Definitely that fence is begging for a climber of some kind. But, you will need to consider if you would like evergreen, seasonal, flowers (scented or not), maybe even an edible cordon fruit tree?
By the steps, I would say it begs for something scented and I would be thinking in terms of a rosemary or lavender.

But, have a think first about which style you would like; which way your garden faces and we'll take it from there

 

Thanks @"M" funnily enough @Beckie76 suggested lavender for the same area!

The garden is East facing, so the patio and decking at the back of the house gets the morning and afternoon sun and the rear deck and fence gets the late afternoon and evening.

For the patio and deck as you come into the garden I was hoping for a slightly mediterranean courtyard feel with colour and terracotta. The patio and deck are both large areas, I've already added a garden shelve type thing on the patio with some potted fuchsia and herbs which look alright but a bit lonely.

I love the idea of lavender spilling down around the steps. The two beds beside the steps are around 3mtr x 2.8mtr. Do you (or anyone else, I don't want to pile on the pressure!") think there would be the space in them for a larger feature plant/ grass type beside the deck and the garage wall on either side with the lavender surrounding them?