Suggestions for boxes and front flower boxes please

kerrypn

Hi

I am not terribly green fingered, but I live in a terraced house that has those attached brick flower beds and also a v small back yard that I did up last year and has a hanging basket, 4 plant boxes and 3 average sized pots.
I am going shopping for plants tomorrow to revamp them all for summer, and was hoping someone could guide me a little bit as to what might be best. The front flowers should be colourful and low maintanance, and in the back I would really like to try growing some edible plants, that the children can help with, but they must be low maintainance or I will end up killing them, I am not great at gardening.

Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated. I have a budget of around £60-including new compost-this is desperately needed at the front as the soil quality is v bad-but if it comes in cheaper I would be chuffed to bits.

Thanks in advance

Mrs_Huggett

If I were you I would first of all buy a half decent book for beginners, like the gardening expert by Dr D. G. Hessayon there are a range of these books and this is the best one to start with as it covers the basics. You can buy them in Homebase, B&Q or W.H.Smiths etc. Many places are just starting to sell bedding, summer flowering bulbs etc, and garden centres are starting to get veg in too. easy plants for you to get the kids into edible plants are things like strawberries and runner beans. You could get them to grow potatoes in the ground or adapt a large container. Places like Wilkinsons, Homebase and B&Q sell bare rooted perennial plants at 3 for £5 all of these are generally easy to grow as long as you plant them well with a good helping of compost, not just the contents of the bag that the roots are in.Do you have any greenfingered neighbours? Have a little chat with them, find out what works well in your area, most people that garden are friendly and only too happy to impart their knowledge! Which is why I'm sure many people will give you lots of advice on here. Good luck!!

kerrypn

Thank you for the advice, I will check out wilkinsons. Sadly as I live in a row of terraces with similarly snall gardens, all my neighbours just have gravel in their boxes and the back yards are just that-yards I will try the library for a good gardening book thanks

I love the idea of strawberries and tomatoes as the children love these but strawberries are so expensive, so if I could grow these I would be very happy

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I bought marigolds last year for the front and they were beautiful but were invaded by caterpillars....and I mean LOTS of caterpillars I bought sprays etc but nothing worked and they ate all the flowers

scottishchick27

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grow-Your-Fruit-Plot-Growbags/dp/0572034946/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303512089&sr=8-1

I've bought this book and it has been really helpful.

dulcey

it is nice to have window boxes they really brighten the place up. maybe when you have a nice display other neighbours may follow. l usually plant geraniums/pelargoniums, you can get trailing or ordinary.there are some v. nice shrubs with tiny blue or mauve or white flowers that go nicely with them, they also look great in hanging baskets.just remembered the name lobellia also come in the trailing variety

Mrs_Huggett

Dulcey is spot on with the pelargoniums, you can buy packs of them in Wilkinson's usually,they are very reasonable, but give them a drink when you get home Wilkinson's are notorius for killing off half or more of their plant stock! You will need to give them a decent feed once a week to help them grow, mostly they get very few pests and they don't mind getting a little dry if you forget to water them, just don't make a habit of it! Strawberries will need feeding too, I use very dilute tomato feed, I usually dilute it to 1/2 strength that you would use for toms, come to think of it you could grow a couple or three toms too, just choose the varieties that don't need staking. How about trying the lower smaller type of dahlia, usually comes in a pack of two, around 1.99, again wilko's! give them a little feel, just to make sure the tubers are firm, not squishy, most of these sorts of shops find it hard to kill off most of these things, its just the stuff that needs watering you have to be careful with!

pinkcandyflossprincess

buy a book:eek: go to the library woman:D
dont be shy inchecking out the kids books either as lots of how to grow type books there!
have you got any pics of the front brick area as t give a hint of what it looks like already, and how the sun lies?

Jake'sGran

dulcey wrote: »

it is nice to have window boxes they really brighten the place up. maybe when you have a nice display other neighbours may follow. l usually plant geraniums/pelargoniums, you can get trailing or ordinary.there are some v. nice shrubs with tiny blue or mauve or white flowers that go nicely with them, they also look great in hanging baskets.just remembered the name lobellia also come in the trailing variety

They have pelargoniums in Lidl at the moment £3.99 for 6 good plants, also well grown fuscias at the same price. I am really impressed with the quality. Next week they will have begonias, lobelia and other plants at a good price. I like Wilkinsons but their plants are not very big and not a patch on the above.

I find tomatoes are easy and have four already one foot tall growing in tubs. It will nice for the children if you buy the cherry type ones, many of which don't need the axle growth removed.

Re books about gardening there are some great bargains on The Book People site, often less than half price.

kerrypn

Thank you for all the replies

I have been out today and bought myself some gorgeous bedding plants for the front-I will take a pic later and try and post up on here. I also got some mint, curly leaf parsley, chives, fennel and lavender(baby ones) for a mini herb garden. I got a tom plant and a strawberry plant too.

I am sure I will need plenty of help keeping all these things alive so I will post back my progress. I also got 20 free begonia bulbs from the garden centre for spending over £20, so I am chuffed with that

Now, how to take a photo of my flowers on a busy road without looking like a loon......:rotfl:

kerrypn

OK, Here it goes, please dont laugh at my amateur attempts at gardening!(pretty please)


The front boxes and hanging basket











The back yard











Does it look OK? Spent all day planting cream crackered now!!

Mithos

Brilliant! I really hate going past neglected flower beds and purpose built trenches, you've done brilliantly.

One small "tip", if that area out the front gets a lot of sun during the day it will get VERY hot with all the concrete and rock, so don't neglect watering if you want great lush looking plants.

Well done again :T