Complete novice, help!

Devil08

Hi

Moved into a new house recently. Back Garden is a blank page, just some grass in place. Im looking to put in some flower beds, with some pollinators. Where do I start or should get I an expert to do it? Do I need edging, do I need compost and mulch and top soil, help!

Also, front garden, small row of soil there for some hedging along a fence, easy enough to plant hedging?

Id love to get into gardening and not have someone else do it, but its a minefield out there and all online videos are telling different things!

Thanks

Gloomtastic!

Have you got pictures of your garden you can show us? Also direction please, south-facing, north facing.........

Do you want flowers, lawn or fruit/vegetables?

Devil08

Its south facing garden, its a basic rectangle is the best description I can give of just newly planted grass! no pictures yet sorry as Im not living there yet..still moving in!

I want flowers (pollinators mostly)

Thanks

wildwillow

Don’t do anything drastic till you see what your soil is like. Builders are notorious for leaving a beautiful lawn which is hiding rubble and waste.

Walk around the area and see what grows well in the local conditions. A quick fix this year is to cover some of the grass with plastic until it dies and then scatter annual seeds you will get a lot of colour for the summer and give you time to plan

Be careful when choosing shrubs. Something like Sarcococca is evergreen, easily trimmed and gives the most glorious scent in early spring.

Look out for gardeners on your travels. They love to share knowledge and plants and are a great help to beginners. Just compliment their garden!

standardg60

Agree with not doing anything drastic, let the grass grow under your feet and read a book or twenty, books were a thing for this once upon a time, it's how i learned anyway.

looksee

Keep it simple to start with, you will probably redesign your garden several times over a period of years. You can put in edging, it makes life a bit easier to know where to weed to and where the grass starts, but you don't have to. Dig out a border across the end maybe, if you find a lot of rubbish then be prepared to dig up the whole lot and start again. If its ok add a couple of bales of some sort of compost and maybe a bag of manure and mix it all well in.

Then decide what kind of flowers you want. There are lots of perennials (plants that come back every year, some you can still see in the winter, some disappear till the following year) that are good pollinators and are easy. Much easier imo than trying to get a decent show by scattering wild flower seeds, or even growing annual bedding - the trays of young plants that appear in garden centres and supermarkets at this time of year. Its still a bit early for them, cold weather could take the lot. They can be very bright and colourful but they will only last one year then you start again next year.

looksee

Absolutely agree about reading books - or on the computer, but whichever, just browse and find stuff out. Its half the fun and not nearly as back breaking!

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058292864/complete-novice-help

"but its a minefield out there and all online videos are telling different things!"

Gardening is nothing like a minefield. You could go out in your garden and do loads of things wrong and still come back next year and change it about to work better. The reason people say so many different things to do in the garden is because there are so many different people with their own ideas of what they want from their garden or think should be important. The fun of having your own garden is that you can decide what it is you yourself think is important to have in your garden and learn to cultivate it to provide what you want. Look at other gardens near where you live that have had time to establish, talk to anyone you know who is interested in gardening for advice on how to get what you would like from your garden area and get books or simply do online research on what steps you can take to get the garden you want. Any gardening subject typed into an internet browser with or without the letters RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) will often lead to an informative few pages on the topic but remember your garden has conditions that may not match those where the advice was sourced so local knowledge is best. Online garden related chat forums also have a place. Even posted some videos myself showing how my own garden is developing. The main thing I think is just to enjoy the activity as any mistakes can be viewed as a way to learn what to do better in future.

Happy gardening!

MacDanger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120498645#Comment_120498645

Just to echo this - I think it's worthwhile spending some time thinking about what you want to use your garden for before deciding how to do it and / or hiring a professional. For example:

• Is it just for adults or kids as well? Space needed for playing football?
• Will you use it for entertaining / BBQing?
• Do you want to encourage wildlife?
• Do you want it to be colourful/fragrant?
• Do you need it to provide privacy?
• Will you plant veg/herbs?
• Would you prefer almost zero maintenance and just turn it into a patio?

Ultimately it's your garden and once you have a reasonable idea of how you and your family will use the garden day to day, it'll be easier for someone to help you achieve that

Good luck with it

magicbastarder

post and panel fencing, i guess? would affect whether you'd be able to plant climbers or not.