:waves:

Hi folks,

I thought I had better sign up and get reading before my front and back gardens go to rack and ruin!

My brother has recently got married and moved to Canada so in the interim I am looking after his house. With the house comes a front (north facing) and back (south facing) garden for me to ruin er I mean cultivate!

Having never had a garden before and being one of the few that is able to kill cacti I'm on a mission to learn as much as possible!

I bought an RHS minibook and that's told me i need to feed and seed the lawns this month and do a number of other things, one of which was something to do with perennials though helpfully there was no definition of perennials (yes I am that stupid!) so if anyone knows of any proper idiots guides er helpful gardening books with simple explanations please feel free to point me in the right direction.

Thanks muchly

Debs

PS Why can't i set my avatar to the following pic? I've tried changing it via my profile but it's not playing cricket.



[ 22. September 2007, 10:01 PM: Message edited by: Willo ]

 

Hi Willo/Debs and welcome to GC.

I may or may not be of help to you because of my location but I'll help out when I can.

In the meantime, enjoy the forum, there's a lot of good folk and info here.

 

Thanks Lady of Leisure,

I'm contemplating resorting to photographing my garden for plant identification purposes!

At the moment my rules are - if it looks pretty or is immediately recognisable as a proper plant it stays, everything else goes! Suspect this will work until the sneaky weeds start looking pretty!

 

Welcome

Definitely photo the plants, there is an ID section in this forum for you to post them. I enjoy seeing them and probably not be able to help very much :(

I can however help you with what a perenial is.
Annuals - only last a season or so, or a year.
Biannuals - only a couple of years.
Perenials - last years if looked after. These are the shrubs, heathers, grasses and other perenial plants (like lavenders) that dont die after a year or two.

If you want a book book on gardening foundations, i found Alan Titchmarch - book one, very good. He talks about a lot of the backgrounds behind things. If you like me you like to know why things happen rather than 'they just do ok'.

Hope that help :D

 

Hi again, Debs.

In the Photo Gallery section, several of us have our threads of our gardens and how they progress through time. Perhaps you would like to starr your own thread there ... it's easier to keep track of. :D

Our ID section is second to none, I can assure you and is used often by even the "most experienced".

Gosh, Alan Tichmarsh, I think the first book I bought was one of his from 1985 (bearing in mind I came back from the States in 1977) A-Z of Popular Garden Plants ... still a favourite. But my Aussie one is the best of all and suits my climate.

 

Hello Willo /Debbie always a pleasure to welcome someone new, I'm sure you're not as bad as you say you are.

If you are indeed a serial killer where plants are concerned then I'm sure that will all change with the help and advice you will get from the wonderful guys and girls on here.

In next to no time you'll go from killer to grower.

As Newbie and Lady says it is always a great idea to be able to post some pictures of your garden and it is indeed a wonderful idea to keep a visual diary of your progress.

Enjoy your gardening adventures and watch out for that 'gardening bug' once you start it's really hard to stop! :D
Helen.xxx.

 

Hi Debbie and welcome to GC. :D

 

Hi Debs welcome to g c lots of good advice to be had, avitar looks good from here.

 

hi debs and its a big welcome from me enjoy

 

Thanks for the welcome folks

Have taken a few (ahem) photo's so will find a suitable place to put them!

 

Welcome to the forum Debbie.

 

hi willo welcome to G.C. before you know it youll
be a gardening expert

 

Hi willo welcome to the forum