Newbie here

Hi everyone, new to the forum and fairly new to gardening so please be nice!! I have loads of questions!

My hubby and I moved into our new house at the tail end of last summer, we had no garden at all in our last place so we're just getting used to having outside space and I have to say we're loving it although we don't know what we're doing at all.

Thankfully our garden is low maintenance, mostly lawn, hedges shrubs and a few tree's, nice and easy to look after as I have some mobility issues as well as our general level of ineptitude with it.

We have a section of border in our front garden though which has a shrub I don't particularly like that didn't seem to do well over the winter so is looking straggly to say the least and next to that is a bit of bare soil with some daffodils in. It's one of the best spots in the garden in terms of good sunlight so it just seems such a waste to leave it as it is. So I want some advice on re-doing that area how we want it.

We really like the country cottage garden sort of look, fairly rustic, not too manicured with lots of flowers. The space I want to re-do is about 4 foot long by 2 foot wide although we'd have no issue making it to maybe 3 foot wide. On either side is a large lavender bush and a large creeping conifer (not sure if that's the right name for it?!).

Planting wise we want some tall flowers like foxgloves and lupins at the back, we'll put some daffodils and tulip bulbs in for spring colour then thinking of filling it out with wallflowers or something like that.

So questions;

1) Will that selection of plants give us colour from spring to the end of summer?

2) Would we be better trying to grow them from seed/bulb or just buy plants aready grown on a bit?

3) What sort of time of year should we be planting everything?

4) Is there anything we need to do to the soil/area prior to planting?

5) What sort of ongoing maintenance would we need to do?

Thanks for your help. :thumb:

 

Hi Mrs Sizer, Welcome to the forum

Your first question- depending where you are in the country, your spring bulbs will be over by March/ April. You need a range of plants to give you colour and interest through out the growing season. What colour schemes would you be interested in?

As for the rest of your questions, not surprisingly answers will depend on how much time you are able to give to the garden. Meaningful responses will depend on a realistic appraisal of your time commitment- 4x3 isnt the biggest planting space, so if you choose your colours, the gang here will be happy to suggest plants! We can post photos of plants to help you decide too.
You mention some mobility issues, there are lots of ways to adapt planting styles to minimise challenges for you.

However, I'd definitely ask you to start your own compost heap/ bin if you havent already. It will be a great way of helping your garden along. I always dig in compost before I plant. And I mulch the garden with it twice a year.

 

1) Will that selection of plants give us colour from spring to the end of summer? Hardy annuals.

2) Would we be better trying to grow them from seed/bulb or just buy plants aready grown on a bit? grow from seed you get much better plants, dead head often and they will see you til the first frosts

3) What sort of time of year should we be planting everything? Now you can sown and plant anything now even potatoes. next year start Boxing day for onions, new years day for tomatoes. Follow seed packets advice for sowing seeds.


4) Is there anything we need to do to the soil/area prior to planting?
Yes dig over, add well rotted manure or compost. rake in 3.oz per sq yard bonemeal, add Growmore 5oz per sq yard two weeks before planting.

5) What sort of ongoing maintenance would we need to do?
weed often, dead head flowers often and spray with a foliar feed like miracle grow every two or three weeks.

 

Thanks Melinda,

Happy to spend an hr or two a week on the garden but we want to keep things fairly low maintenance as we want to enjoy the garden, not fee guilty for relaxing in it when we should be working on it if that makes sense!

However the rest of the garden needs very little work, the lawn needs mowing obviously and give the shrubs and hedges a bit of a trim but we have nothing that needs work every week at the moment so we'd be able to spend an hr or so a week basically just looking after this bed!!

Easiest to just show you some pics of the sort of effect we want, obviously it's on a much smaller scale but you get the general idea! So here are some google images of the sort of thing. We like it when it's not too fixed on one colour scheme but is more a riot of colour!

 

oh man I'm sure I just wrote a reply and it's disappeared?! never mind, it'll take me a little while to get used to the forum i'm sure.

Melinda - in total we want to spend a couple of hrs in the garden a week, probably not more than half a day, however all we have at the moment is lawn, hedge and shrubs so just needs the lawn mowing and the shrubs trimming back every so often. At the moment we probably spend an hr a fortnight working on it so considering i just want to change one relatively small area of the garden this bed alone could give us an hour or so work every week and I'd be fine with it!

thanks for the concise answers lad, very helpful.

colour scheme wise we don't like it to look too fixed in one colour, we like that country garden look where it's a bit of a mish-mash and a riot of colour, almost wild looking.

so what will give us good colour year round when mixed in with spring bulbs, foxgloves and lupins?

 

Best just look through gardening weeklies for seasonal ideas. shrubs esp berry bearing shrubs give colour all year.

I spend hours and hours in my garden and allotment and it will happen to you too. I'm lucky its also my living and hobby.

 

Excellent- that's totally do-able. There are many hundreds of plants and varieties you can choose. Here are some of the most common.

I find gardening is front loaded- most of the effort is spent early on in the growing season- get that bit right and you can coast by until the autumn.

For a cottage garden feel-
Sweetpeas June- October if you keep deadheading or use as a cut flower.
growing up obelisks (bought or home made) dotted in the bed- you can buy these now for a few pounds in small pots- I think you've missed the seed planting window, but you could try.


Delphiniums colour- June-September
Beautiful colour and height


Cone flowers- late summer colour- August to October:
Rudbeckia


echinacea


Geranium cranesbill. Soft mounds for the front of the border- in blues, purples and pinks. Summer long colour


Geums- come in reds, yellow, pinks, oranges


Alliums- I like them proud and tall.


Peonies- from the deepest crimson, soft pink to white and every shade in between.


Climbers- rose and clematis is a classic combination. You dont say if your bed back onto a wall, but if it doesnt, an arch or arbour covered in clematis and a rose would look fab.
If you choose rose varieties which flower two or three times through the year and clematis with longer flowering periods, you can have stand alone and over lapping colour.


Do a search on here for 'Shiney, aquilegia' her has a magnificent collection.

See also: Irises, dahlias, poppies, aubretia, chrysanthemums, hollyhocks, campanulas, penstemons, crocosmia, gladioli, salvia, sunflowers...

Any combination of the plants above will give you months of interest. Check out plant sales, boot sales, school fairs as well as garden centres for plants all summer as you've missed the prime seed sowing time.

Good luck!