Plant help for an empty garden!

springdreams

tiz wrote: »

Sign up for the Thompson & Morgan newsletter / keep an eye on their website. They do perennial collections of plug plants where you get a big batch of small plants to grow on that gives you a good mix. You can end up with 70 odd plants for £10. Perennials are plants that stay alive (fingers crossed) year after year. I'd be tempted with some clematis for the side border - they'll need some supports but that will give you hight as well.

For now you might also like some annuals - plants that only last a year. They'll give you flowers and colour now so good for filling in the gaps with others grow. Again look out for offers or have a look for big packs of mixed seeds. Again buying plugs will give you more for the same price and they will grow fast now the weathers warming up.

Everything I've bought from Thompson & Morgan has died .... The plugs I bought from Wilkos and B&Q have fared better.

You'd be better off going to a local garden centre / nursery.

DigForVictory

Or your nearest car boots - I've got several little plants for pennies a pop & advice on where they'll do best.
Poundshop plants tend to be very fragile & a bit of a false economy, but the packs of bedding stuff outside supermarkets (including Aldi & Lidl!) usually survive & look pretty enough. Supermarkets & poundshops usually do plant food pellets which help, although this last week I think a watering can would have been more critical!
I'm a firm believer in herbs of the sort that don't try to take over the world so chives (in a pot as they scatter seed widely), mint (as roots take over the available universe) but then sages, parsley, oregano marjoram? All can be very pretty, bee friendly, and delicious in spag bol.
My little cousin is currently winning hands down in her section of garden - she dumped (sadly, an exact description!) a load of nasturtium seeds in a month ago & now has both green leaves she can eat & the start of bright flowers which should stay blooming til she starts school. And I'll be pointing out where they've formed seeds so she can repeat the trick next year (hopefully across a wider area & in my garden?!)

Oh & one other thing? A big trug to chuck the garden bits into so you have One Place to look for them all, from trowel to secateurs to the pack of seeds bought on impulse etc. Saves you needing a shed in your first month!

wantonnoodle

I would suggest lavender, you can get it in both white and purple, and in the summer it smells lovely.

Also, cats generally don't like it much so often give the area a wide berth. Good if you want a humane way of keeping cats out of the garden!

Other plants you may like to include are clematis and dianthus. If you are prepared to keep it pruned, you could go for a buddleia, but they need to be kept under control as they can be invasive. Bees and butterflies love it though!

firebird082

wantonnoodle wrote: »

Also, cats generally don't like it much so often give the area a wide berth. Good if you want a humane way of keeping cats out of the garden!

I wish someone would tell my neighbour's cats that. We've got masses of lavender, and it doesn't stop them!

Mrs_Huggett

Many years ago I bought a book..The Garden Expert by Dr D G Hessayon.. I found it invaluable for information when starting out..get a copy of the Flower Expert (same author) at the same time and this will give you a good grounding in how to choose..plant and care for the plants you will fall in love with..Also many of the really good plant retailers online have great information on them..Companies like Crocus.co.uk and the Nurseries like Wyevales..Gardening teaches you one thing.. if nothing else.. patience lol Dont be afraid to get it wrong sometimes..just don't get it wrong with really expensive plants!!

arbrighton

tiz wrote: »

Sign up for the Thompson & Morgan newsletter / keep an eye on their website. They do perennial collections of plug plants where you get a big batch of small plants to grow on that gives you a good mix. You can end up with 70 odd plants for £10. Perennials are plants that stay alive (fingers crossed) year after year. I'd be tempted with some clematis for the side border - they'll need some supports but that will give you hight as well.
.

I really wouldn't recommend this for a beginner, sorry. Growing on perennials requires pots (and the space for them!) and time and patience. And it's not very often that you get 100% success.

Butterfliesarepretty

I love gardening and find that perrenials such as dianthus, delphiniums, foxgloves, giant poppies, aquilegia, campanula (spreads fast though) are perfect for any spot, shady or sunny. I have inherited a good garden by moving house to Darwen from Bury and I have on one side, two types of clematis, honesuckle growing over the garage and from that bed is a herb garden, spearmint, chives, fennel, parsley, wild garlic etc. At the back is a rock garden we made and we put saxifraga(pink), primula, geum, lemon fizz, phlox, and winter primulas in white. On the other side I have a large artichoke plant, a frame with runner beans growing on it, jasmine, camelia, wild garlic again, and purple med sized alliums.

Buy a tub of chicken manure and sprinkle all over soil and let rain soak it in. £6 a tub. We also go to a farm where we take our own bags and get free manure well rotted and just dig it in. Over time your plants will grow faster, no need for feeding pellets. We have taken down a leylandi shrub and i have used the stump, pulled the bark off and drilled holes all over and made a feature of it by placing york stone (we had all over the garden) edges in a circle, got some large pebbles and planted daisy, poppies and other small sedum plants around it with campanula etc. Bees and flies use the holes to crawl in and out of. Also to add structure to your garden, buy a small japanese acer (lots of leaf colour) and you only have to repot every 2-3 years. Make a log pile too for insects, the more bees you get the more interest created.

firebird082

arbrighton wrote: »

I really wouldn't recommend this for a beginner, sorry. Growing on perennials requires pots (and the space for them!) and time and patience. And it's not very often that you get 100% success.

Agreed - I did lots of these in my first year, and whilst many things survived, in hindsight, it really wasn't the best way to get started.

tootallulah

Plant a few perennials as seeds they will grow and give you confidence and plants. I grew the backbone of my cottage garden knowing nothing just with six flower pots and two bags of compost. And now I am an addict growing with a street plant swap group , fruit and a bit veg. Hugely enjoyable and for me unexpected.

balletshoes

springdreams wrote: »

I'd recommend hydrangeas, lavendar and fuchsias. They are very low maintenance.

couldn't agree more - I'm not a gardener, have front and back gardens, and haven't managed to kill off any of these in my gardens, despite almost no maintenance of them for the 13 years we've lived here. I'd add California lilac (Ceanothus) and peonies to that list, and I'm having quite a bit of success with hostas in pots (they get eaten to stumps if i try to grow them in the borders) and dog roses as fence cover.