Where to start?!

Hi,

My boyfriend and I have no experience at all of gardening so I've joined hoping I can get some help

Just bought our first home and we have a 75 ft mature garden but no idea what we're meant to with it! I know we have lots of bluebells, a hydrangea bush, a laburnum tree, 2 apple trees, some kind of Christmas tree and roses that are onthe side of the garage wall...We've also just bought a small palm tree to go in a pot on decking.

How do I distinguish between weeds/plants? I want some more clarity in the beds but don't want to dig anything I might want up!

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Bam. I think the best thing to do at this point is take pictures of your garden/plants, post them on here and we'll do our best to identify them all and let you know which are weeds and which are not.

 

You beat me to it Armandii!

 

After moving into a new house ... do nothing for the first year, except to keep it tidy. Photograph it regularly (I wonder round with a camera about every 2 weeks) and that will remind you what flowered etc. & when.

Make notes about what you like / don't like, where there are gaps etc. and then during the Winter plan what changes you want to make (provided that the gap didn't fill itself a month later with something else that you had not realised was there, lurking, that "shot up"!!!)

 

Hope these help a bit! We've mowed the lawn so much shorter now. Good idea about photos and seeing what we've got, it's hard as we're both impatient

Thanks for your warm welcomes and fast responses so far, it's much appreciated.

 

I agree, unless there are urgent jobs to be done, spend as much time as you can in the garden enjoying, maintaining and getting to know it. Next year is the time for change if you want to. Just keep cutting the grass and smelling the roses!

 

Ok thanks a lot, I'll get photographing so can figure out what we've got! These photos were taken about 10 days ago...now the hydrangeas and bluebells are dead- the flowers are dried up and crispy. Is this normal as they've finished their flowering or is it lack of water? Or any other reason?!

 

The bluebells will be over (they look like English Bluebells, much nicer IMHO than the Spanish ones, you might like to learn the difference, in future seasons, so that you can remove any Spanish that arrive as they will cross-fertilizer with your English ones and completely take over in a few years :( )

There weren't any Hydrangeas in your photos (and I wouldn't expect them to be in flower yet ...). Something else perhaps?

Many plants only flower for a few weeks, then "go over". Others flower all Summer long! Your Rose may be a short-season flowering type, or may have a second flush later (or may keep going, sporadically)

 

Thanks what do I do with them once they're done? Do I leave them to it?! I'll take some pictures and see if they can all be identified then draw a plan of what we've got

 

Taking the dead flowers off (so called "dead heading") means that the plant doesn't waste energy trying to produce seeds. Depends whether you can be bothered and/or whether they look unsightly if you don't ...

Bluebells will self-seed, and I reckon you'd be there a month-of-Sundays if you tried to dead-head them!

The climbing Rose would be best dead headed (and that may encourage it to flower again). I dunno what type it is though to know whether that would be the case, or not. I deadhead our normal roses, but I don't bother with the climbers as its too much effort to get up and amongst them to reach the dead flowers

Hydrangeas (if indeed yours are Hydrangeas AND have finished flowering) have nice "dead flower heads" [technically they aren't flowers, but you don't need to worry about that] once they have flowered, so leave them on.

 

Good afternoon Bam,
and welcome to GC. Wow, all that space to do - over time - whatever you want to do with it. Try and watch gardening programs, read garden magazines when you can and keep looking at threads on Gardeners Corner. There is soooo much enthusiasm and inspiration here and only a mouse click away. Your property and grounds have a good "feel" and I like the sunlight you enjoy in your garden.
Key word here, ENJOY. This country is one of the best in which to own a garden,
Jenny namaste

 

Yes to the bluebells. I don't have hydrangeas but my neighbour used to say cuttings from hydrangeas should be taken on the longest day so maybe you could have a go at that if your green fingers are twitching!