2 things

Hi

I'm a new person to this forum and I'm also a beginner gardener. I live in London and have a garden which is currently a lot of concrete and a few raised beds which has been neglected and which needs sorting out. I have 2 questions:

1. At the front of my house I have some boxes where I can plant some plants. But it is a spot that gets the sun from midday until sunset with little shade so I need something that can both survive the sun, but is hardy enough for the winter. Do such plants exist!?

2. What is the £GC thing I see down the left hand side of my screen?

Lethalmako

 

Hi Lethalmako welcome to the forum.
It's really exciting getting into gardening but I must warn you it's incredibly addictive!

Neglection in a garden is not too much to worry about all you have to do is first see if there are any plants you want to save if not rip them up or even better still dig them up nicely and pop them on free-cycle.:gnthb:

For a garden that is in the sun all day long you will need to have drought tolerant plants as a rule silver leafed plants are very resistant to lack of water but even then to begin with these will need a little water to settle them in. One of my favourite drought tolerant plants is 'lamb's ears' those furry leaves are delightful to touch and the little flowers although not amazing is quite lovely among the leaves and the plant will creep around a little.

I have added a link to the RHS site to give you an idea of some plants to try just google their names in images to see what they look like.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1105/drought.asp

The £GC thing is 'play money' that you accumulate with each post you add to the forum I have been told it is to gain credit to play online games on here in the future.
Hel.xxx.

 

Thanks Hel

 

Hi and welcome,like Hel says, a neglected garden is actually a good starting block, so good luck.

 

Welcome to GC,

 

Hello and welcome to GC lethalmako.

I can't be of much use to you from here but I know you will get lots of good advice from other members of the forum.

Enjoy!

 

Good evening Lethalmakom and welcome to the site.:thumb: Two plants I would add to the list are Sarcoccoca, for winter interest and Erysimum, which, nowadays, tend to flower for most of the year. :gnthb:

 

hi lehal and welcome to g,c:gnthb:

 

thanks very much everyone!

 

Welcome to g c lethalmako.

 

Never a truer word spoken!

Welcome to GC :gnthb:

 

Hi lethalmako. I would suggest Mediterranean plants that thrive on lots of sunshine, poor soil and little water. things like Rosemary (there is a lovely prostrate variety that will tumble over the edge of the raised beds) and Thymes, Artemisia, Cistus, Erigeron karvinskianus (fleabane), Senecio, and for some height, Euphorbia characias and Cynara cardunculus (Cardoon). I used all of these in my garden Shinglesea, at the Chelsea Flower Show last year and the judges appeared to think that they were ok for a drought tolerant setting! If you were feeling adventurous and were prepared to wrap it well inthe winter you could try Bougainvillea. Now wouldn't that look fabulous?

 

Hi Lethalmako and welcome