New to gardening - need advice

hi there,
i am new to gardening and need advise.
Just managed to shape my front lawn but not sure which plants to be adding to borders. I am looking for all year plants, something that would make the area look nice.
Not looking to spend alot but so advise of that can be done.

 

Welcome to the forum @Edan!

I am sure lots of advice will be coming your way but we might need a little direction. It would be lovely if you could add your general location to your profile and maybe tell us which direction your borders face. This way everyone can think of suggestions appropriate to your area and the amount of sun the border will enjoy.

Cheers!
Lori

 

Hi Lori, Thanks for coming back to me so quickly. The borders are front facing to the property. Sun always comes up at the front of the house - south facing.

 

Hi @Edan

I have only been gardening for 3 years so I'm not an expert, but there are a lot of aspects to consider, such as:

• Do you want to add privacy to the front of your garden, in which case you would want plants which will eventually become rather tall, or keep it open & without restricting the sun coming to the house, (in which case you might want to go for plants which won't grow too big)?
• Are you willing to be spending time maintaining the plants, or do you want plants which are really tough and self-sufficient (after they are established)?
• What your soil is like, though you may not know this at this point.

You mention "year-long interest". Usually this is associated with evergreen plants. However, evergreen plants are generally not as exciting as plants which change over the seasons, plus often they need more protection from extreme cold.

In reality, it is usually recommended to mix evergreens with non evergreen plants. You create the basic structure of the garden using evergreens and then add the other plants to make it more colourful and exciting.

To get ideas, it's useful to go on a search engine and select the filters that apply to you. I like to use the Crocus one (crocus.co.uk, use the search bar and then apply filters) even though they are a bit expensive, I use that for ideas and buy the plants mostly from local garden centers or nurseries ;-)

Some more tips from my experience:

• Avoid conifers like the plague (my house was full of them when I bought it and they are a real bother).
• It's worth sketching a rough plan/ideas on a piece of paper before doing anything.
• You might want to have a colour scheme e.g. white / red / blue or purple.

Say you decided to use some small Photinias for your evergreen structure (make sure to check the final size, as some can grow quite big and others stay small), those have red tips and then you can combine them with roses* & lavenders or salvias in a way which looks good visually. Just an example.

(* keep in mind that roses need a lot of care, this was just an example).

At the end of the day, it might be best if you don't rush to get all the plants at once. You need to be patient with a garden & it keeps changing over time.

 

Welcome to the forum. Trying to get year-round interest in small borders is not easy. You don't say how much time you are prepared to spend in the garden. Personally, for a small space like that, I would put Daffodils and Tulips for the spring and Roses for the summer and autumn.