Easy plants for first timer

mickeymouse303

Just moved into a new home with a larger garden so I finally have room to brighten it up with plants.

Can anyone recommend some relatively easy plants to look after for someone who's never done this before?

peter_the_piper

You'll need to help by advising where you are to plant them. Plants come from a few inches to many feet.

pearl123

mickeymouse303 wrote: »

Just moved into a new home with a larger garden so I finally have room to brighten it up with plants.

Can anyone recommend some relatively easy plants to look after for someone who's never done this before?

There are loads of websites on-line with ideas. Some plants like to be in the sun and others in the shade. Some plants are fussy about what soil they grown in, although I've never taken much notice of that and have always done ok with whatever I've chosen.

Have a look at gardens around you and see what plants/shrubs you like.
Consider whether you want something with all year interest, or something that flowers for months. Perhaps get some gardening books for the library. Perhaps a border book. The Sarah Raven site is good for getting ideas, however they are expensive.
I believe that Suttons seeds and Thompson and Morgan have how to videos.

I don't think you need to get advice from anyone special. It's just a bit of research. Plus garden is often trial and error.
The range of plants is so broad that it is very difficult to suggest just a few IMHO.
There are probably thousands of plants that don't need much attention.
How about planting daffodils in september. They look lovely in clumps and some are suitable for containers too.

I_have_spoken

Start with this list of tough plants and filter by other criteria - http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/vid.1616/

mickeymouse303

Thanks for the tips guys, I appreciate it.

AirJoe

Hi Mickey. I was in a similar situation to you this year in that I moved into a flat with a small flower bed out front. Long story short I started with the websites but have mostly ended up buying plants that have caught my eye in the garden centre. Just a quick check of the label to make sure they're ok with my planting spot and not going to grow too huge. Some have worked out and some just didn't.

For reference my spot is east facing and falls into shade mid to late morning. I'm on the south coast so there's decent sunshine when the shade isn't over the flowerbed and the temperatures have been reasonably warm.

These have so far worked well in containers:

Pieris (Forest Flame I think), which looks lovely as the new leaves come in. Really tidy looking at the moment too.

Helichrysum (a yellowy green variety but the label wasn't specific). Didn't realise it was a trailing variety when I bought so it has grown sideways instead of up. Not ideal for my location but it IS growing well

Scabiosa (Butterfly Blue). My first big success. Just keeps on flowering and the tall stems means the flowers really stand out. It does start to get a bit of a leggy spread to it as you deadhead (5 mins, each weekend) but I have no qualms about cutting the wild ones back as it just keep flowering. The bees like this one too.

Star Jamine. Growing up a cheap Aldi planter/trellis combo. Have used some green velcro to hold it to the trellis. It's not growing super fast but looks healthy so far.

These were planted straight into the ground:

Mixed Geraniums (bought on a whim from a local supermarket), Did nothing for ages and then went mad. Planted them waaay too close together so I have a small Gernaium jungle but I love it. I think they won't make the winter though so will need replacing next spring.

Allysum (Carpet of Snow). Another impulse supermarket buy for just over a quid for a pack of seeds. Scattered them around the geraniums and then covered with compost and watered regularly. Had to put a bit of netting over them initially to stop the cats digging them up. Start out tiny and you're supposed to spread them out but I found doing that incredibly fiddly. In hindsight, I would rather have taken a bit more time when I sowed them to make sure they were more evenly spread. Also planted too many so, along with geraniums these complete my jungle. Look lovely as a little drift though and smell nice too. I think these are annual so will need replanting again next year (maybe will try to mix in other colours if I can get them).

Things I killed:

Nemesia. Was immediately covered in tiny black aphids and i think my approach of cutting them off killed it. Probably my fault.

Astillbe. Looked stunning initially but I just couldn't give it enough water. Apparently they like it boggy. Didn't want a plant that needed twice daily watering so ditched it.

For all the above I planted them with some all purpose compost with added slow release food. Used the same thing for everything and mostly, it has been ok.

Upkeep has just been a small amount of deadheading to keep the Scabiosa going and a watering can of water every few days if the rain hasn't been forthcoming.

Maybe there's some ideas for you there. Good luck!

Silvertabby

If in doubt, plant a (hardy) geranium.

My 'Rozanne' is flowering her little socks off!

KittenChops

AirJoe wrote: »

Scabiosa (Butterfly Blue). My first big success. Just keeps on flowering and the tall stems means the flowers really stand out. It does start to get a bit of a leggy spread to it as you deadhead (5 mins, each weekend) but I have no qualms about cutting the wild ones back as it just keep flowering. The bees like this one too.

From someone who started mid-summer last year and is still learning (there is sooooo much to learn but it's fun!)...

We have the same ‘Butterfly Blue’ Scabiosa and I'll second everything AirJoe said about it. I bought two earlier this summer and put them in a raised bed which gets full sun (apparently that means 6+ hours a day) and is so well drained it might be described as drought-like, which sounds low maintenance to me!

I also put in two ‘Totally Tangerine’ Geums with them and all four plants haven't stopped flowering since. I've cut the spent flowering stems back to the base of the plant twice this summer and am hoping to get a third set, although it might be a bit late in the year now...

I have some Bidens in the same bed (sorry can’t remember the variety but they’re a fiery red and yellow combo. Bit of a b$gger to deadhead though…

We absolutely love dahlias; we grew some from seed this year and I have run out of borders to put them in and people to give them to, so they can’t be that hard! They do need to be lifted after the first frost and left somewhere dry and cool over winter, but if you haven’t anywhere to put them, they can be treated as annuals. If you deadhead regularly they will flower continuously from about mid June to the first frost - I think they’re stunning.

For me, it's about experimenting and seeing what works and what doesn’t. Someone gave me some crocosmia last weekend, so I split them into two pots and have put them at different ends of the garden, my thinking being that if one pot fails the other might not, and I’ll have learnt what kills them!

Last summer we wasted money by buying plants which I think we may have erm… dug up accidently this spring because we forgot what was where and what was perennial. L On the other hand, some plants have sprung up out of nowhere so we didn’t dig them all up. This year I’m taking photos to help me remember!

When I buy a perennial, I check to make sure it’s hardy (will survive the frost).

And I always watch Gardeners World now - lots of tips on there, especially the ‘jobs for the weekend’ bit.

Hope that helps J