First garden in Ireland - help required!

tmq

Hi everyone, My partner and I have recently moved into a rental house in Dublin 3. It has a very large yard, with a few garden beds. We've never had this much garden before, and to top it off I'm from Australia, so have little experience with the local climate/seasons! So I've a few, varied queries.

The garden was well established by the owners, but possibly neglected by the previous tenants. There are roses, hedges, lavender, hydrangeas, a few shrubs, and lots of bulbs coming up now that I think are crocus, daffodils, tulips and dalias.

Firstly, regarding the roses, should they be pruned about now? And would I find someone to come do them easily? I haven't done them before, and would like to have them pruned properly.

As it is a rental place, I don't want to invest too much in large plants or structural changes. But we would love to have a LOT of flowers and color through the year. Should I be thinking about planting summer flowering bulbs soon now? I notice they are for sale in some of the shops already. And can I plant them amongst the spring ones that are coming up now?

There are quiet a few spots for hanging baskets too... when should I be planting them?

Finally, there is a new fence the length of the property. It is north/south, with our side of it being the west side, so it will get sun (if there is any!) from 12pm-1pm onwards. Half of the fence has stones at the base, so I was wanting to plant something in a large pot to climb, cover the fence and give some color. Would sweet peas grow ok in a large pot, and with this much sunshine? when would I plant them? (Not from seed - I would buy them partially grown.)

I have a hundred other questions, but this will get me started!

(BTW I haven't tested the soil, but it looks very good and has a large number of worms - more than I'd see in Australia!)

Thanks for your help.

lazybones32

You don't need a pro to prune your roses: reduce them - around now will be okay - to one-third of their height and make the cut just above a bud or 'knuckle' on the stem. Try have the cut at an angle but it's not essential. If you still feel uncertain, check on-line for a "how to..." page and go out and look at the roses before cutting them.

If this is your first Spring/Summer here, wait and see what will happen before buying loads of bulbs. There could be enough planted already.

Hanging baskets should wait another while (the Sunny weather won't last) and your Summer bedding is still a bit off.

The sweet peas are a good idea: if the wall gets 1hr during Winter/early Spring it should get a few more during Summer. Keep an eye on it and you can plant when the plugs are available in a few months. They'll need wires or to be tied onto something.

The hydrangea can tell you what type of soil you have (blue flower = acidic soil; pinks = alkaline) and if there's plenty growing already, you know it must be relatively good soil.

Day Lewin

It sounds like a nice garden. West-facing will be lovely on summer afternoons and there seems to be plenty of planting already.
You might want to do some homework on the commonest weeds and pull them out when they start to grow, (which will be soon, LOL)
Dublin actually has very good soil, as a general thing; even vegetables are likely to grow well.

Good luck, enjoy!

tmq

Thanks for the tips.... I'll have a look at rose pruning online and see if I'm confident enough.
Sounds like i'll have to hold off a bit on the summer flowers and sweet peas. I'm keen to be doing things! I can set up the wires for them already. Are clematis another similar option to sweet pea? I might try both.

I haven't seen our hydrangeas bloom yet, but think I've seen some pink ones in the neighbours when we moved in.

I do have a bit of a problem with weeding... think i may have already pulled out some some plants by mistake!

There's one bed that looks ideal for vegetables too, but it has some daffodils coming up in it at the moment.

Thanks again.

looksee

Rose pruning is overrated as a skill! It has been shown that attacking roses with a shears is just as good as careful pruning. Just have a go at them.

I agree with the others, have a bit of patience this year, getting year round flowers in our climate is a bit of a challenge, sometimes everything you put in will grow, other times some things might fail. There could well be summer bulbs in the garden, wait and see. You can always brighten it up with bedding plants. These will start to appear in April. Do not be fooled, wait until about mid May before planting bedding or you could lose it all to a late frost.

Presumably you have grass? You will probably need to start cutting that in about a month, depending on weather and growth. That and weeding are all you really need to do until you establish what is there. You could find that hardy perennials that have died back completely could pop up in unexpected places.

It is very unlikely that you have dahlias coming up at this stage, just wait and see what comes.

Yes you could do the sweet peas, but like the bedding, it is way too early at the moment.

looksee

If anything you have pulled up so far was just small with a single root (seedling) it is not likely to be a plant. All that will be showing at the moment - and its a bit early for anything - is large herbaceous plants, bulbs and weeds!

tmq

Yes, there is heaps of grass! Its a huge lawn. Its generally in good condition, though round the edges and along the new fence there is different types of weeds and nettles creeping in, so I'll have to get to pulling them out.

Think I'll be a full time mower in the summer.

I'm glad I've found somewhere to get helpful advice anyway. Thanks.