Very novice gardener looking for some advice

acl2009

My DH and I moved into our new build house last January after being in a flat for 5 years. Being in a flat we never had a garden or thought about gardening.

Our house has a small front garden and what I would call an average size for a city house rear garden. When we first moved in we had other priorities other then gardening but this year we want to start making it look nice, starting with the front.

The front is a small area of aprx 5m x 2m with black iron 4ft high railing seperating it from the pedestrian path. Tomorrow we are going to pull up all the weeds, put a membrane down and cover the area with some stones we have bought. My question is what else can we do to bring some colour/add decoration so its not just a rectangle of (albeit pretty) stones? Neither of us are what you could call green fingered so want something low maintenance. I'm also heavily pregnant so something relatively easy to do too!!

Thank you in advance.

amcluesent

Which way does the garden face, N\S\E\W? And is it shaded by trees?

If it's a new build, the topsoil is usually terrible so you'll likely be best off with troughs\pots

Linda32

acl2009 wrote: »

Tomorrow we are going to pull up all the weeds, put a membrane down and cover the area with some stones we have bought.

Well, thats quite abit of work so you are obviously wanting to get stuck in straight away

Do you get sun in that area? or is it shaded.

You can do what is known as summer bedding in pots which would look quite nice. Once planted they do normally need watering once a day but if you only have a couple or three then hopefully that will fit in with a new baby!

You could perhaps have a couple of hanging baskets as well.

You do need to wait for a month or two before putting anything out which won't like the frost. If you go looking at plants, the likes of B&Q will say protect from frost.

Hope that helps a little bit. We have a small garden and part of it is gravel and pots. I rather like the look myself and these quite alot of things you can do.

acl2009

The front is the sunny side of the house with that little patch of garden facing S-SW with nothing shading it at all. There was no grass there, just bark chipping things and a few cheapy shrubs which have overgrown and gone all weedy, so luckily not having to dig up turf or anything!

Might get a couple troughs that can go against the house with some bright coloured flowers. I'm loathe to plant anything in the ground due to potential state of the soil, I shudder to think what rubbish is under these bark chippings!

Thank you for the advice so far.

Linda32

acl2009 wrote: »

The front is the sunny side of the house with that little patch of garden facing S-SW with nothing shading it at all.
Might get a couple troughs that can go against the house with some bright coloured flowers.

Well, then if this is what you want, pretty much the world is your oyster :j. If you can, take yourself off to pretty much and garden centre or B&Q/Homebase anywhere like that and look for packs of plants.

You can buy primroses now which come in nice bright colours, plant in the troughs and water when its warm and thats it.

Edited to add, if you fancy anything else when you get to the nursery and you might. Have a look on the plant labels, they are a mine of information. You need to look for a sunshine emblem rather than a picture of half a sunshine (it'll be obvious when you see it) and the words "suitable for containers and baskets" or something along those lines.

When the weather warms up abit, in that I mean these no chance of any frosts, which in the East Midlands where I am
will be in about a months time or there abouts. These all manor of summer bedding which can go out. Viola's spring to mind as there not much bother, flower away to themselves without any need to dead head (which means taking off the dead flowers to enourage more growth)

amcluesent

Yep, you could go for some large terracotta pots (50cm) to minimise watering, use good compost and and water-retaining crystals and then plant up for summer. Could do lavenders with summer flowering bulbs like galtonia or put in bay trees and then underplant with herbs for the kitchen.

walkers-crisps_are_evil

Cut a circle in the membrane and stick in some rudbeckia goldsturm. Will grow in most soils. You'd find it would probably be fine in whatever is there but dig out some of the soil (get partner to do it ) and add some fresh compost and mix it with the soil there. You will not be disappointed. It is a very low maintenance herbaceous perennial that has a very long flowering period from mid summer all the way to first frosts at end of year and looks brilliant.

Gefjun

Ornamental grasses come in all sizes and colours, and are low maintenance, plus will look good on the stones. Just put down your membrane and cut holes where you want to plant them, pop them in the ground and put the stones around them. Odd numbers of plants seem to work better then even. If you want some colour as well, maybe put some bulbs in to come through at various times of year - maybe some alliums would look good? Obviously you'll need to cut holes in the membrane to let them through

Eenymeeny

walkers-crisps_are_evil wrote: »

Cut a circle in the membrane and stick in some rudbeckia goldsturm. Will grow in most soils. You'd find it would probably be fine in whatever is there but dig out some of the soil (get partner to do it ) and add some fresh compost and mix it with the soil there. You will not be disappointed. It is a very low maintenance herbaceous perennial that has a very long flowering period from mid summer all the way to first frosts at end of year and looks brilliant.

Thanks for the Rudbeckia suggestion. I scattered a packet of seeds in different bare patches in the garden and they are still providing bright patches of colour. I can't remember the variety but I've had a mixture of colours from bright yellow to beautiful, bronzey coppery colours! (Didn't think that they were going to survive that constant rain through the summer but am reaping the benefit now. :T