Where do I start?

:confused: Im am a complete fool when it comes to gardening, can manage to cut grass and a bit of weeding, I have decided this year to make it look a bit better and im not sure where to start, im so glad I discovered this site as I was serching for some answers hopefully you lot can help?
My main problem is a long weed with thornes on it(think its a weed) told you I was useless! but its everwhere and the roots are really hard to find and when I do they are really difficult to pull out. It is scattered all around my borders and it drove me mad last yr, Any help on how to get rid and what it is would really help.
Also what should I be doing this time of year in the garden apart from weeding, should I be cutting things back, Have a few shrubs one which flowers yellow at the end of June that looks brown now, should I chop it down and if so will it regrow? My grass looks like wild grass, what shall I do, like I said when and where should I start. Please help.

 

Hi Nathen,
Thanks I will sort some pictures out and post them,
Ive just passed the site name onto my sister in law down south she is a keen Gardener, her garden is lovely. So hopfully you will have a new useful
member. (unlike me)
Thanks again I will be in touch soon.

 

Sounds like it could maybe be a brambles?

A sort of wild blackberry or a culivated one gone wild

They can be a pain because they can root wherever the stem touches the soil, I have just finished clearing an allotment that had some in and it was a bit of a long way round it but I kept snipping them off at soil level and removing the top growth every few feet..there was some good bramble and brushwood killers on the market until the Brussells loonies started banning everything so I am not sure if there is a chemical you can spray on, but even so you would still have to remove them when dead

 

Thanks SteveW
My Mum metioned somthing about blackberry last summer now you mention it you could be right, I have been doing the same snipping off a soil level, but a few weeks later they are back :(
I will look out for somthing to get rid once and for all.

Cheers

 

how do you grow busy lizzies from last years seeds

 

Hi learner
The simple answer is dont bother, the plants were probably hybrids which means the plants you get this year will not resemble last years.
However if you want to try:- Scatter the seeds on the surface of compost lightly firmed in a seed tray,cover lightly. They will need a temp of 20-25 deg to germinate
pete