No green fingers....

happy_go_lucky

Hey everyone,
I was just wondering if anyone had advice. I have two small areas in the front of my house (at either side of the drive)...there are some plants there (mostly greens and I must admit some are probably dead) with bark stuff covered over the soil.
I really want to fix these areas up and plant some flowers.
Once I weed all the area should I lay more soil before planting?
Do I remove or leave the bark stuff?
Also should I plant seeds or plants from pots??
I really have no clue sorry!!!!
Any advice is greatly appreciated....thanks!!:o

Thanos

Hi,

Well the first thing you will need to do is clean away the bark and any old plants. Once that is done you will get a clearer picture of what type of soil you have, or lack of it.....................

If you are will to put the time into it, you can then dig the area and remove as many stones and other bit of rubbish you can. If you have compost you can use some of this. Put it down the bottom. Then on the top half, mix in some peat moss or the like to richen up the soil and help with water retention.

As for seeds or plants, if you are new to this I would go with the small plants from ponts or trays, you can see what you are buying and can pick nice healthy plants.

Hope this helps.

The Sweeper

The bark stuff sounds like a layer of bark chippings as mulch. The purpose of mulch is twofold - it helps the soil retain moisture and condition, and it helps to suppress weeds. If it appears to be in reasonable condition, I would rake it all off the beds and pile it up for reuse when you're finished working on the beds - that stuff is expensive enough to buy in, no point wasting it.

Pull weeds out first, then rake off the bark mulch. Once that's gone, you should have nothing left except beds with established plants. Can you identify any of them? Do they look healthy, or are they straggly and sick? Have you lived there long - for instance, is there a chance that you might be looking at some plants in their dull winter coats and you don't realise that they'll explode in a riot of gorgeous colour in about two or three months time?

I'm going to presume you want to completely pull all plants. Map out the beds and measure out sizes. Then decide what you want to do with them.

Do you want them colorful and lush? Do you want them sparse, hard-wearing and low maintenance?

Once you know what you'd like from them, then you need to assess how you get that effect. What sort of soil is in the beds? What sort of drainage? Is it claggy clay, that retains water and sticks together if you squeeze it? Is it loose, sandy soil that doesn't hold water and won't clump if squeezed when wet? Also, how much sunlight do the beds get? Morning? All day? Just the evening? Is there a surrounding fence or hedge that casts shadow over the beds?

Get an idea of the sort of soil, the amount of light and the level of drainage. For instance, plants that love the full sun and well drained soil won't do well if you plant them in beds that have poor drainage and are in shade most of the day.

You can work some well composted material through the soil of the beds before you start planting to make sure there is enough nutrients for hungry young plants.

Then decide what sort of plants you want - flowers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are plants that last a year and die, plants that last two years and die, bulbs that come up every year, die off and will come up the next year again, and plants that live for years and flower every season. Do you want to be pulling out plants and re-planting every year? Do you like the idea of bulbs (daffodils, for instance) that you plant and that give you a nice, season-marking noise of colour at a certain time each year?

Get some ideas in you head and go to your garden centre. Everything in the garden centre is for sale, and most of it will tick a number of different requirement boxes. Subsequently you don't need to know the plants you want when you go, but it DOES help if you know what criteria you want.

For example, if you go and say "I want a flowering plant that will last a few years, has pink or red flowers, likes the sunlight and won't grow much bigger than, say, a metre high and a metre wide" that narrows it down considerably and the garden centre people can point you in the right direction.