How to garden?????

Hello all this is my first post on here and i guess i'll be pretty regular...I'm only a young bloke who is trying to garden very unsuccessfully, here are my dilemmas:

I have a garden which is a fairly steepish slope(not too steep but) and the occupants of the house before me planted various bushes, Now the garden itself isn't so much of a garden as there isn't any grass but just shrub and a hell of a lot of alpine strawberries which when i first moved in i didn't mind but now they and bindweed have taken over the garden nearly i'm pulling it all out.

My garden slopes up to a section i have decked in two tiers which is very nice and on the left hand side at the top i have put in 3 panels of fencing for some honey suckle, clematis and on the top panel some grape vine which is growing very well.

The main body of the garden is the problem as i just don't know what to plant, i have some lavender which looks fine but doesn't grow brilliantly but the ferns seem to grow great!(just in the process of digging these out) I also have a few other plants which i fail to recall there name which seem to be growing well but it's the rest of the garden i just seem to have bushes growing with bindweed in it.

Any advice i guess on what is nice to grow because i like flowers which seem to be in a sort of bushy spread of 60cm, i guess some nice perennial flowers would be nice too but i don't know anything as you may of guessed by now!

I just need help.

Thanks.

 

Hi Discobarry-

Gardening is a massive thing to learn and even the expert gardeners on the forum agree, that even now they are still learning

My first tip is for you to find the pH of your soil. You can usually buy a cheap device from most places. You will find this important, as some plants will die if they can't grow in the pH of your soil.

Then, just look in other peoples gardens and see what you like the look of- find out the name and plant them. Plants often look best planted in groups of 3's,5's7's or 9's

You will make mistakes in your garden with planting the wrong thing in the wrong place, but don't worry thats normal and most things can be moved.

 

Sup Disco barry! (Great name!)

Can you post a few photos of your garden. That way we'll be able to see what're dealing with.



Mel.

 

Hi there Discobarry

The first thing I'd say is don't try to do too much at once. Sort out one area at a time and try not to notice the bits which are still waiting for attention. It takes quite a while to get a garden together, especially if the time you can spend on it is limited. Planting up the garden and watching your plants grow is the fun bit, but boring preparation is the key to getting things to thrive. If you have lots of bindweed, one of your first tasks should be to get it under control. If you don't mind using chemical control, a good weedkiller such as Resolva will kill not only the top growth but the roots as well. This is important, because if you simply dig out bindweed, each tiny bit of root you leave behind will form a new plant.

Once you've got reasonably weed-free soil and you've given it a good digging over, preferably incorporating organic material, you can start thinking about plants. Have a look at what grows well in your neighbours' gardens, as these plants are likely to grow well for you - but only plant things you really, really love! Planting in drifts of three, five and so on is certainly desirable - but expensive if you buy everything from the garden centre. If you know someone who is a keen gardener he or she will almost certainly have spare seedlings or plants which can easily be split up to form new material for your garden. I have all kinds of bits and pieces which I have pinched from my mother's garden over the years!

 

Well, for what it's worth, here's my twopenn'oth.

I second everything which has been said, particularly about finding out what type of soil you have. You can get a pH soil testing kit (where you mix soil with chemicals and watch the liquid turn different colours which you then compare with a colour chart) for about £5 which will probably give you about 5 tests, or for a about £7 you can get a 'probe' which you just stick in the soil (and is 'everlasting') and which tells you whether your soild is acid or alkaline - both are readily available in 'sheds', garden centres and, of course, on Amazon. Take samples from different parts of the garden.

Alkaline soil is 'sandy', has a pH above 7, it's easily worked but dries out quickly and is poor in nutrients so you really need to add organic matter to help it hold water and nutrients. Soil with a pH below 7, is acid. It's 'heavy' or clay like, sticky in winter, rock hard in summer but is full of nutrients although you have to improve it to release them - again by adding organic matter. Of course, the ideal soil has a pH of 6.5 to 7 - it's something to which most of us here aspire!

Despite having said all that, I wouldn't get too 'bogged down' with the chemistry at this stage, just find out what type of soil you've got and, if like mine it's sandy, then look for plants which are labelled 'prefers well drained, light soil.' If it's clay soil you've got then you'll want acid loving plants (often referred to as ericaceous).

How long have you been in your house? If it's less than a year you might want to wait just a bit longer to see what 'hidden gems' may yet appear. You may not like what you've got at the minute, but don't be in too much of a hurry to grub everything out. Yes, get rid of the worst of the weeds, (but if you garden you'll always have some weeds) but if you take out all the bushes now, you'll be left with bare earth - the perfect conditions for even more weeds to grow - and you could find, when it's too late, that those bushes could have provided a nice backdrop to other things - apart from which the more bare earth you have, the more plants you'll have to buy! Perhaps you might consider just trimming those bushes ... for now at least.

Once you know your soil 'type', just google something like plants/perenials/shrubs for sandy/acid soil or whatever your criteria is and look at the pictures. When you see something you like just make a note of it. Looking in neighbours' gardens is fine, but none of mine bother with gardening so they were no help (!) in which case just go round garden centres and see what you like the look of, you may be able to visit some gardens locally or look in books, or even google something like, 'yellow scented perennials' if that's what you want, and see what it throws up.

A word of warning - garden centres can be bad for your credit card, you go in to buy one thing and come out with one trolley full - there's probably a self-help group somewhere where they each stand up in turn and say 'I'm ..... and I'm addicted to garden centres' :hehe:

It's true that the 'best way' to plant is in odd numbers - but if you're after something and they're £6 or £7 each, that can get pretty expensive. My garden is pretty much full of plants where the odd number was one - they've gradually increased over the years - but if you don't have unlimited funds (or know where ClaraLou's Mum lives!), look for something you'll be able to take cuttings from, they might take a couple of years to become respectable plants, but in the meantime, you can always fill in the gaps with summer bedding which are often 'silly cheap' in late Spring.

I know from experience, that as a 'beginner', gardening can sometimes seem really complicated - believe me it needn't be. If you know your soil type, buy plants which like that type of soil and you can a hole .... you can garden - and don't forget something edible, there's something really satisfying about picking even a couple of cherry tomatoes from a hanging basket.

Enjoy.

 

Hello Discobarry and welcome to the 'corner'.

There are loads of good books on gardening which could help give you some guidance as to how to plan and plant your space - are you aiming to produce vegetables at all? or aiming at flowere/shrubs.

Am sure you'll get lots of enjoyment learning - best of luck..................

 

Sorry for the late reply all! i won't put pics up as after thinking more after doing a lot of clearing and working out that i will do the main garden a half at a time to be the best bet!

So it is cleared of what i don't want, even though some small bushes are still there but i'll get rid of most as i don't like bushes generally...well not the ones in my garden.

I will do a PH test and get back to you, at the minute i struggle to find the time as i'm usually busy with work and come home to it chucking it down although it's always sunny where i live

A quick one, i want a nice natural border going up the left hand side of my garden...I have some nice bamboo which i could possibly split and put all the way up, would this be nice? or am i ruining a bamboo( the bamboo is in an annoying place ).

Thanks again all!

 

Hi Barry, Welcome to GC. if you are thinking of planting bamboo be careful and buy
a suitable type, some are clump forming and some will run all over your garden and will
be a nightmare to get under control, check with the garden centre/nursery you buy
from as to their growing habits, it could save you a lot of hard work and stress.
Good Luck!!

Pete

 

I have two types of bamboo already, i don't know what they are as one was in the garden already which is a very nice bamboo....very dense smallish leaves and and other is more like canes with bits of leaf coming out of them.

Also i will PH test my soil as someone earlier mentioned!