Established Garden - Clueless Owner

steelee_uk

Last July we moved into the house of our dreams, however, it has a very well established - fairly big - garden.

We are in our late 30's and know nothing about gardening. I thought that we'd have time over the few months after moving in to work out what to do, but it's February, other things took precedence and now we face the spring with still no idea of what to do.

The family who established the garden, were very keen and, I understand, proud gardeners. We have 2 fairly large greenhouses stacked with empty planters and lots of tools.

The garden is full of evergreens, ideally we wanted to plant fruit and veg. Al the guidance I have seen, seems to focus on what to plant, without much help for managing an existing garden (with no knowledge of the plants already there).

To be honest I find the whole thing very overwhelming and am now at the rabbit in the headlights stage. If we had the funds, I'd consider bringing in a gardener for advice, but we don't have that's option.

Is there even a sight where tou can identify plants and how to maintain them?

As you can tell from my ramblings, my heads all over the place but a point in the right direction would be helpful.

Thanks for reading this.

Esther

torbrex

Sit back and enjoy what you have.

The good thing about gardens is that they mostly take care of themselves, all you do is trim the edges to make them look the way you want.

As it was July when you took over, you will have no idea what the garden will look like in Spring so give it time, you might be surprised what comes up.

If you want to make a vegie plot, you will need to decide what you want to dig out and you either rip things out willy-nilly or you give it time to see what you like and don't like then you can move things about to give you the space to plant fruit & veg.

I grow fruit and I just mix the plants in with the rest of the garden rather than have a separate area for it, that works for me but might not work for you.

I_have_spoken

Usual advice is observe the garden for a year, you may see a spring bulbs start to appear soon, then perennials.

That said, gardens with exclusively ever-green shrubs is quite an 'old skool' design.

ideally we wanted to plant fruit and veg

I'd be cautious TBH, I know the idea of grow-your-own is appealing but you have to put the time in and be prepared for losses to slugs, birds etc. Plus you go holiday in August and come back to find lots of produce has 'bolted' and is fit only for composting. Realistically, most produce can be bought cheaper at the market than growing yourself.

I'd suggest getting a guide, like Monty Don's "The Complete Gardener" or Titchmarsh's "The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg". 2nd hand from Amazon they are both low price.

Mojisola

steelee_uk wrote: »

We are in our late 30's and know nothing about gardening.

The garden is full of evergreens, ideally we wanted to plant fruit and veg.

To be honest I find the whole thing very overwhelming and am now at the rabbit in the headlights stage. If we had the funds, I'd consider bringing in a gardener for advice, but we don't have that's option.

Is there even a sight where tou can identify plants and how to maintain them?

People on here are pretty good at identifying plants - post some photos.

As the garden is well-established and you are a novice, don't do anything in a hurry. Give yourself this year to get to know your garden.

Identify what you have in the garden, decide what you like and will want to keep and what you are happy to get rid of.

If your fingers are itchy and you want to get started growing things, start with clearing out the greenhouses and use that space.

There are loads of websites on gardening and beginners are usually very welcome - people like to share their knowledge.

Fay

Having inherited an established garden myself I completely agree with the advice to just wait a year and see what comes up. I've had my garden now for over 5 years and last year I started really changing it, I had done bits of work prior to that and a lot of maintenance. But it took me that long to get my confidence up.
Why don't you have a look at growing some fruit and veg in pots for this year which will give you an idea of the time it takes up, whether you enjoy it and will give you some gardening to be getting on with?
Definitely post some photos, it's how I had most of my plants (if not all, identified). Do you have some pics from when you moved in ?maybe from the sales particulars if you didn't take any? Then get some now and if you took any in autumn etc. you'll get things identified then you can start looking up what you have.
Good luck

DaftyDuck

Buy hundreds of plant labels from ebay. When you ... think ... You've identified a plant, bung a label in or on it, with name and basic pruning flowering notes. Keep a second in the book as a bookmark. Do little in the first year if you can, you may do more harm than good.

Gardening books are cheap second hand on Amazon and ebay.

Look around your neighbours. Find another good garden or two, find the cranky, arthritic gardener, and seek advice.

REEN

Looking plants up online can be confusing. In the olden days I found seed and plant catalogues useful. They have good photos of the most popular species and varieties and they are free!

ALIBOBSY

Some good advice on here, but I reckon alot of MSE and on other GYO forums would disagree with the cost thing.

The reality is you can grow local. good quality, organic veggies that are far tastier and fresher than anything the big stores can supply for pennies if you get into the mindset of using what you have and reusuing other items.

From what you say you already have greenhouse and pots, both of which can be a big expense. Do you have a compost heap or bin in the garden-most big gardeners will have them. So for the cost of a few packs of seeds-plenty of cheap places online or go down to Aldi/lidl/poundstretcher for their cheapy packs you could make a start this year. Easiest thing to grow is pick and come again salads and pots of fresh herbs easy and cheap and will encourage you to try more next year.

Start small and see if you enjoy it, it needn't cost as much or take as much time as you think, but if you go crazy in the gardening shops can cost a fortune lol.

We started with one small raised bed a few years ago and one of those mini blowaway greenhouses. Now we have a full size greenhouse, chickens and all rasied beds in the back and fruit bushes and trees in the front as well as pots everywhere. Most of our pots are freebies, freecycle/being chucked by shops (ask before taking even out of bins)/from friends/repurposed tubs and pots from other things.

Good Luck

Ali x

Kyrae

Hi Esther, lucky you moving into a beautiful already established garden


If you're on Facebook, there are some good helpful groups for advice and helping ID plants, eg. Gardening UK, What is This Plant?, etc. Also good gardening forums on the Gardener's World website with lots of people happy to help ID plants! Feel free to post photos of the plants on this forum too and I'm sure everyone will help as much as they can Though they'll probably be easier to ID in a few months time when there are flowers and leaves!


You could try looking for local gardening clubs, gardeners are usually keen and enthusiastic folks, willing to help people new to the hobby as much as they can! Also, local libraries are a great source of info, borrows lots of plant books for a browse, charity shops are great too for finding cheap gardening books! Also have a look for special offers in Gardener's World magazine, I just resubscribed a month ago and it was £5 for 5 issues! Also, in a few months time when Spring is in full flow, have a wander around your local garden centre and see if you can recognise any of the plants in your garden, and make a note of the names.


Once you've IDed the plants, you can buy a guide to pruning and that'll help with the maintenance! It's a lot of fun looking after a garden, and there's no rush, take your time and enjoy

steelee_uk

Wow, thank you for so many replies. Lots to read, and take in, so I'll be back in a few days once I'm able to reply.
������

Orange_King

Sounds you have got a great garden that will give you plenty of enjoyment in the coming years.


If its a big plot you will already have under-estimated the time you will need to spend with upkeep probably!


It is all down to personal taste though. If many of the plants/shrubs are well established it might be difficult to remove them easily but I would start by ensuring the invasive varieties are dealt with, that the natural light is maximised by cutting back tall shrubs you don't want, but of course wait until you know what they are!


You might regret rushing into it!