Newbie with no cluebie!

Good morning all,

I am very new to gardening and thought the best place to start might be a friendly forum such as this one.
I have a relatively small garden which currently has zero plants in it… yup, not one :(

The main reason for this is that we have a young son (a year and a half) so our focus has been on him and we also opted for a very, very basic maintenance free front and back garden due to having no gardening knowledge, being a little apprehensive about taking on any kind of gardening, for ease… and yes, a smidge of laziness! :-o

However, now the time has come that not only would I like to get my own fingers and little muddy so to speak I would like my son to have the same experience and enjoy what nature has to offer.

Anyway, enough waffle, I came on here to ask for any recommendations for some pot plants, any tips and any general advice on starting with a few simple pot plants that we can plant up, leave out and ideally let them take care of themselves where possible.
We are blessed with a home that has very sunny front back gardens most of the year (we do live in the UK so I say that with a slight smile), although we do have some shady areas too below the fenced areas and around our garden office.

in summary… COMPLETE beginner, looking for a handful of potted plants to begin with in our mainly sunny back garden. Any help or advice very much appreciated.

David

 

Hello David,

Why pot plants? I only ask as generally plants in the ground are usually easier to look after than pots.

 

I'd agree that it's always harder to manage plants in pots rather than in the ground. The amount of time you have for that is also a factor.
What type of thing are you looking for @DavidMey ? Evergreens, perennials, edibles etc?
Large, small, colours?

 

Hello
I’m not a gardening expert by any means and I found bang for my buck & easy to deal with in a couple of potted hydrangeas, deep pink/red. This colour one only needed multi purpose compost and watering & some miracle grow feed, they have done well in a south facing garden with a bit of shade so might look good near your office . I have probably done everything wrong but they still looked nice & I move them around easily enough if I want to.Pictures always help so….first picture plant as bought & the empty tall pot waiting to be filled (I filled the bottom with some stones for weight & then polystyrene & then MPC) & second one all potted up (both pictures from 2021). These aren’t evergreen so in winter I just tuck them out of sight from the house, they are beginning to leaf/bud up now & once they flower with a bit of dead heading they carried on until late August & possibly into Sept last year (I can’t quite remember) although not as profusely.
I hope you enjoy whatever you decide on.

 

A little area for the wee fella is a good idea. I always had that for my girls.
The problem with hydrangeas in pots is - they won't all be very happy in them, so you have to be very careful about choices. Long term, compost is no use either.
The biggest problem though, is that at this time of year, there are thousands of them in GCs because they force them for the Easter market, and push them as indoor plants for that occasion. It gives a false sense of care and flowering time.

 

Welcome to the forum and the world of gardening. Your idea of your child and you learning together is brilliant. That is how I started many moons ago. My Dad and I getting dirty and planting things together.
You do not say how big your garden is so possibly pots is a good way to start. For both of you, it would be good to have quick results so buy plug plants from a garden centre initially. You could try lettuce Cut and Come Again, a small packet of shallots to eat. A couple of packets of annual flower seeds, nasturtiums or marigolds for flowers.
Growing things in pots means you will have to keep them watered, there are very few plants which can be grown untended. Rather like having a child! Plants also need to be fed, watered, kept clean and loved.

 

I gather by pot plants you mean plants in pots that you can plant out in the ground. You could start with a few easy shrubs, like spireas, weigela. Go to a garden centre, see what they have, read the labels and look them up on your phone. Buy a bag of multi purpose compost. Choose where to plant them, dig holes and mix some compost in with the earth before filling the earth back aound the plants. Water well. There will be some earth and compost left so use that to make a flower bed or vegetable bed.

It is fun for children to sow seeds so you could clear a bit of ground in a sunny spot. Dig it over and add some compost. Then you can sow some seeds and /or plant some baby plants from a garden centre. Don't plant tender annuals yet though, wait until risk of frost is over.

It is rewarding to grow vegetables with a child and some of them have big seeds that are easy to manage, such as broad beans and peas. Fresh peas are so yummy eaten raw from the garden. You could try some early potatoes too and radishes grow really quickly if you water them enough.

If you want flowers then sow some easy annuals, such as marigolds, nasturtiums, nigella, cornflowers. If you sow them in rows then anything that isn't in the row is probably a weed and can be pulled out. Your child will enjoy seeing them grow and cutting flowers to put in a vase.

Don't forget to water your plants in dry weather.

 

As previously mentioned, sunflowers might be worth considering. There are dwarf varieties such as Sunsations which can be grown in pots and the seeds are big enough for tiny hands to handle.
Dwarf cosmos varieties can be sown outside when the weather warms up a bit and the seedlings appear very quickly.

You could also consider plug plants of various flowers, and things such as tomatoes for instance, then that means that there is something visible in the pot straight away.
If you fancy trying hanging baskets there are tomato varieties that can be grown in those.

 

My advice - find photos of plants you like the look of, then check their requirements; obviously you won't want toxic ones or something with big thorns.. make sure they don't need a particular type of soil that you may not have (acid/alkaline, wet/dry, sun/shade etc), and some are not suitable for pots. *Most* flowering plants like sunshine. Also check whether they'll need pampering, such as taking up in winter, or wrapping against the cold. Definitely try and pick ones which slugs don't like, because they're much easier, because you won't be using slug pellets if you have a child, or a pet, or in fact a conscience (really bad for wildlife).
Herbs like lavender are great, because you can also use the flowers for the bath or under the pillow, that kind of thing.
You can get some fantastic dwarf trees for pots, planters or in the ground. (Don't plant willow in the garden unless you live in a very large swamp, lol!) If you go for trees, check their size and more importantly, their root spread.
That's my kind of gardening, simple, attractive, faff-free, looks after itself, doesn't try to kill me, needs a trim sometimes.

 

That's a good point @Busy-Lizzie - I think we all naturally assumed @DavidMey was looking to grow in containers rather than the ground.
Hopefully, he'll return and give us some more info, and maybe a couple of photos to help us get an idea of the size of the site, which he says is quite small.

 

David Mey says his garden is quite small and he has a young child.
It has occurred to me that is why he is thinking of growing in containers. I go along with this thought as the garden will be the child's play area for several years, sand pit, swing, football pitch, climbing frame etc. Far better to give the children the run of his plot until they are older, especially as he says he doesn't want a lot of looking after plants.

 

Thanks for all the friendly and helpful replies to my original message, all really helpful.
Sorry for the late reply myself… one of the joys of having a 20 month old is that you are never short of things to keep you busy
I have been gifted some English lavender and I’m hoping to plant them in my front garden amongst the small decorative stones, there is soil underneath the weed membrane so I was planning on cutting a section of the weed membrane and planting them in.
Would that work and any tips
For lavender?

 

Lavender needs well drained soil, a sunny position and seems to appreciate a dusting of lime each year. They also need a good haircut each year, after the flowers have died.

 

I have lavender along my driveway planted that way (in weed membrane with decorative slate on top of it).
If your front garden is in full sun for most of the day and the soil is well drained they should be fine.
Just remember when you tidy them up after flowering, don't cut back into the old wood .