Any Green-fingered Gardeners Out There? Please Help Me!

[FLORIDA DREAMING]

Hello all,
We moved into a new house at the end of January this year. We've just about sorted out the house and have turned our attention to the patch of mud at the back that the builders call a garden.

My DH has turfed it last weekend and now it just needs some plants. However, I don't know the first thing about gardening and normally shove something into some compost and hope for the best.

Can anybody recommend any good plants, shrubs, flowers for my garden please. I would also like some climbers to hide the fence.

Any ideas/tips would be most welcome.

thankyou.

Catherine.

 

[T16GEM]

I quite enjpoy getting out into the garden every now and again, I don't know if this is of any help to you but a good website for beginners is BBC Gardening
but I would suggest the following too:-

Flor climbers Clematus (SP??) and a nice climing rose are always quite good - most garden centres stock David Austin Roses and they are very nice fragrant ones.

If you don't want too much maintenence heathers and thrift are quite good plants, as are hostas (protect from the slugs though!!) and camilia.

I would suggest rotovating your beds too - to get out any old rubbish like bricks, big pebbles etc as this will help your plants to grow.

Hope that helps

Gems

 

[lenny l]

deleted

 

[gilld]

As an add on to T16GEM, I agree Camellia's are lovely but they hate the morning sun so shouldn't be planted in an east or south east facing garden. I always put some summer bedding in to brighten up the shrubs which form the structure of the garden. I particularly like Nicotiana, Impatiens, Nigella and Californian Poppoes. I also have lots of self seeding Forget-me-nots. Don't forget spring and summer bulbs.