Novice Gardener Needs Advice Please (Merged)

onlyoneme

You all experts have to excuse me….. I am a VERY VERY new to this gardening business.

With big family to look after, I have not had any time for gardening. I don’t have any knowledge about plants or fertilizer or anything like that.

I really am fed up with always admiring other people’s garden and want to do something. My husband tells me our garden soil is very chalky (if I dig more than a 6 or 7 inches white bit start to appear!)

I planted some roses last year and although they flowed a little, they did not grow much and don’t look very healthy. This year one of them flowered but the flowers only lasted for a week. Why is that?

I also have some other flower plants (not brilliant with names!) don’t which don’t have many flowers - but same plants have loads of flowers in neighbors’ garden!!!

WHERE AM I GOING WHORNG? Please give me some advise as to

What are the best plants to start at a budget prices
What I can do to make the plants to look healthy
How do I make them to flower more and (the flowers last!)
What do use to fertilise - do I need to buy stuff at garden centers

Most of all, how do you all people become such an expert on these things and how long does it take????????

serena

Hi onlyoneme,

How about talking to some of your neighbours? I'm a very keen gardener, and I love talking about plants and gardening when anyone asks me! A smile and 'Your garden looks lovely - what's that plant called?' and you're off!

Or you could try the local library - I can recommend the Alan Titchmarsh book 'How to be a Gardener', and there are some very good videos of the TV series of the same name (maybe on DVD by now).

There is a lot of information online - try The Gardeners' World website.

Do you have a horticultural college anywhere locally? They may run courses.

I guess I was lucky that my parents were keen gardeners, and so I learnt from them, but also just getting on and growing plants, reading, talking to other gardeners and visiting gardens, and finally joining specialist societies has made me grow as a gardener.

As to your question about growing on chalky soils - well, I haven't gardened on chalk, but I know from reading that they are hungry soils, and need a fair amount of manure or homemade compost dug in to help hold onto nutrients and moisture. This will help plants grow strongly and flower well. There is a good chapter in the Alan Titchmarsh book on soils and how to improve them.

olly300

onlyoneme wrote: »

Most of all, how do you all people become such an expert on these things and how long does it take????????

Talking to friends who have very nice gardens and grow a mixture of plants becoming an expert simply is a mixture of trial and error, time and researching. I have a friend who worked as a gardener with no formal qualifications.

Researching involves:
1. talking to other gardeners especially if they live in your local area as they will have the same type of soil
2. reading books you can get them second hand or from the library. (Or in my case if you are in a friends' house you can have a look at one of their books to identify plants)
3. now using the internet
4. visiting gardens in your area
5. watching tv programs

One of the most important aspects of gardening is time and patience.

My first experience of gardening was trial and error - which was the daffodil competitions I had a infant school where you had to get your daffodils to bloom at the right time. My parents had no particular interest in gardening but other people in my family did which is why I grew beans, peas and carrots as a child.

If you have neighbours who have nice gardens I would start by talking to them and make notes on scraps of paper. Find out:
1. what plants are growing in their gardens
2. how to overcome any particular difficulties of your soil (This link will help for starters http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/plant_recipes/limetolerant_index.shtml)
3. where they shop for plants and on what days
4. where they shop for compost and fertilizer

If you are lucky and your neighbours see you pottering around in your garden often you will be offered cuttings and seedlings.

BTW one of the easiest ways of getting flowers, fruits and vegs to grow is to do container gardening. However the downside of container gardening is that you are the one responsible for watering and feeding the plant.

elsien

I knew nothing about gardening when I got my house, so everything is through trial and error, and looking at books, and still learning.
As far as fertiliser goes, I get a load of well rotted horse manure off freecycle once a year and spread it over the beds - (digging is far too much like hard work!) If I'm planting anything I put some blood, fish and bone fertiliser in first (poundland or wilkinsons), and I either get tomato food from poundland for my hanging baskets and containers, or I beg some of mum's worm wee from her wormery.
If you need specialist stuff, I go to a nursery, otherwise I tend to find that Poundland and wilkinsons sell almost everything I want a lot cheaper.
I use a local nursery for plants because I tend to find that the prices are similar to Band Q , but they are better quality and have more choice. Also don't overlook freecycle for plants as well - sometimes people put them on if they're getting rid of things, or have propogated too many, or you could also put a "wanted" request on,yourself.

If you want to make an instant nice garden, get some annuals and shove them in a couple of pots to fill in the gaps. Bizzy lizzies and antirrhinums are slug proof, will flower all summer if watered and dead headed. You can put them in straight into the soil as well, but if your chalk soil is an issue it'll give you some colour while you get started.
If you've got kids, get them some nasturtium seeds to grow - almost idiot proof ( I should know!) and it helps them to take an interest - junior weeding, anyone?

Have a chat to your neighbours and ask what they do that makes a difference - I've been gardening seven years now, and still don't feel I have much of a clue, but my garden is massively improved from when I bought the house.
Most of all - enjoy it. Don't fret about the things you can't do, make the most of the bits that you can - you'll get there.

onlyoneme

Thank you so much for Elsien, Olly300 and Serena. You have been so helpful. I will look at those websites you mentioned as well. It looks like that I have a lot of talking to do with my neighbours! I am going to come out my shy shell and be a lot more friendly if I want a nice looking garden....!

Any way I really am going to spend some time researching this. I can't beleive that I actually find the gardening very calming and relaxing!!!

I've never used or even visited the freecycle site. Will do this weekend.

Is it too late to put horse manure now as fertiliser? Looks like I can only improve it for next year?

elsien

I found another cheap one for you - banana skins! Not tried it myself, but might try it on the roses which are in need of serious tlc!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=924501
The flowers on my roses don't last for long either, but they tend to repeat flower fairly regularly which makes up for it.

As far as I know, you can put horse manure down anytime. Make sure it's well rotted or it'll burn the plants ( and smell), and be prepared for the weeds that will grow like triffids.

I know what you mean about gardening being relaxing - it's one of the few things that I find help me completely switch off. And to think I thought dead heading the daffs was the sum total of my abilities. :rotfl:

Fidget21

Hiya

Okay, you have chalky soil which can be good because it will never become a bog (i have clay soil which when wet is like gardening in plasticine!) but because it is free draining you need to add to it so that it keeps the nutrients that make the plants healthy. Manure or (in time) homemade compost are probably best for this, although if you want to give your plants a bit of a boost for this year buy some chicken manure pellets and dig through, this will help with flowering (Roses especially like this). You can use manure now but it might get a bit pongy if you want to use your garden! You might be better to dig it in in the autumn and let it work its magic over the winter.

At this time of year if you want to sow from seed you're best to try things you can sow direct into the ground like cornflowers, love-in-the-mist, nasturtiums, night scented stock and violas. If you want to buy plants you will have much more choice, when I first started my garden I went for perennial plants (ones that come back each year) because it meant I wasn't forking ('scuse the pun) out each year to fill the garden, however please, please try and find a good local nursery rather than buying plants from B&Q etc. You will pay a little bit more, but you will have a plant that has been raised by somebody with knowledge and therefore it is more likely to survive when you transplant it.

When I was starting my garden I found the Gardener's World website invaluable, also my mum bought me a year's subscription to the magazine (theoretically you never need to buy it for more than one year!) which helped a lot. If you wanted a bible then Alan Titchmarsh How to be a Gardener books cover everything.

Most importantly, remember nobody is born with green fingers, they just get that way from all the trial and error!!

jannyannie

Hi

I usually have a good look around my neighbours gardens to see what grows well. We have alkaline soil and can't grow some things like heathers, azaleas, blueberries ect which are best grown in pots with acid compost.

I agree with everything everyone else says, it's trial and error. Good luck!

flis21

Hello all,

Well, I've never had a garden before. We moved into our current house in August last year and basically all we have done up until now is cut the lawn. There is a huge mess at the bottom of the garden, which seems to be hard core (although they called it a rockery when we moved in!!) and lots of weeds and some bush with berries on it and a tree stump. I want to get it all clear and plant some nice flowers and herbs up there. Also the grass is all full of weeds (more weeds than actual grass).

So I need to know what equipment I will need (i've guessed a spade!!) how to go about getting rid of the weeds both the big ones at the back of the garden and the ones in the lawn. How to get rid of the bush and tree stump. (Not sure what the berries are on the bush and am worried about my little boy trying to eat them when he is bigger). Also does anyone have any tips on what to plant that will be fairly easy to grow / look after. (Has to be child friendly, so nothing poisonous or spikey!).

Thanks all,

Flis

jannyannie

Hi Flis21

Sounds like my garden when I moved into my old flat. Sounds like it's a spade and fork job. Also probably a wheelbarrow to load any hardcore into your car and take it to the skip. I would keep any nice looking stones or slabs to use elsewhere. The stump may be a bit hard to remove, you could decorate it with pots of trailing plants. I agree about the bush especially if it has berries. What I tend to do is dig down and cut the roots with a strong pair of secatuars (sp) as I go. Alternately you can dig around it a put hot coals from your barbecue or bonfire aound the roots or bang copper pipe into it to kill it off.

Good luck!

Jan