When to Start Planting: Tips for a Beginner

Caitykinss

After spending all my adult life living in rented flats, I finally have my own house and my own (quite large) garden. It's a bit of a jungle at the moment and I can't wait to get started turning it into a colourful sanctuary. I'm a keen houseplant owner, but I've never done anything outdoors before. I'm sure I'll have many questions over the next few weeks/months, but here is my first one!

I have bought a couple of 'grow your own flowers' kits for the patio from Tesco and Morrisons (they were cheap so I'm not expecting amazing things - I bought them for the pots more than anything!) I have one for snapdragons and one for petunias. Both say to plant in March and place outside, but I'm worried about frost. I understand I'm asking for weather predictions here, but when is best to plant them? There was frost this morning and I had to scrape my car, and the weather seems no different from the rest of winter. Should I wait until the end of March, or will it be fine to get started at the weekend?

Thank you 

DiggerUK

First thing to do is find out what type of soil you have.  Dig a hole for every 20/25 sq.mtrs.  of ground you have and examine.
Then for a year do nothing but keep it weeded and tidy. See what grows  and find out what you have. Then  from next year on 'make it up as you go along'.
Enjoy..._

Silvertabby

It's too early to be planting these seeds outdoors - I would start them off in little pots on a sunny windowsill (be aware if you have a cat - apparently little plantpots are 'meant to be pushed onto the floor').

As digger says, wait to see what pops up in your garden before going daft - you may have some very nice plants in there.  Consider a greenhouse - get a size larger than the one you think you need!

While you are a  novice, consider little plants instead of seeds (although you can't go wrong with nasturtiums, marigolds, sunflowers and the like).  Garden centres and supermarkets will have little plug plants on offer soon - but these will also need to be nurtured on a sunny windowsill until all dangers of frost have passed (usually and of May or even early June).  They will need 'hardening off' before they are planted into their final planting positions, so consider buying a cold frame.  This will continue to be useful even if/when you get a greenhouse.

Enjoy! 

ADD: Make friends with your gardener neighbours.  Not only will they be able to tell you what sort of plants are already in there, they will know what sort of soil you have - and thus what types of plants to plant/avoid.  You may also find that they will be happy to share/swap surplus seedlings with you. 

Caitykinss

Thank you for the great advice, I can't wait to get started. The plan for this year is to get the grass cut and tidied up, lay a new patio and then see where we end up. I'd just like a few patio pots to be going on with, and some climbing plants to cover the ugly garage wall. I'm sure I'll be back to ask about those.

We need to pull the old decking up before we do anything else, and according to an old Google Maps image, we think there may be a filled in pond underneath - filled in with who knows what. Wish us luck!