New garden

hi, I have a new garden (and very new to gardening) and have been watching it since November to see what grows there!

So far it seems to be more big and green then colourful, I'm looking for advice on what to plant and when, so that I can add colour. Oh and ground cover.

I'm planning on some daffodils and other spring bulbs.

 

Pictures of your garden would help us please Dianne and perhaps you could talk us through the areas that you want to improve. What sort of plants would you like to create that colour? Shrubs, herbaceous, annuals etc.

 

Oh that's a good idea, thank you. I will pop out now and take a few pics

 

This part of the garden has a few trees all very close together, I feel it needs grown coverage. All surgestions welcome


I don't have plans at the moment to change this part.

 

I want to chance this part into a veg patch next year. I plan on moving some of the plants, maybe to the front garden.

 

For now I have no plans on changing this, I want to make the red robin tree bushy.

 

The area in your first two pictures.....how much sun does it get please?

I'm assuming your 'Red Robin' is Photinia. It will need pruning to make it bushier. Take some of the height off the top and the branches, this will help it to fill out.

 

Hi Dragonfly Dianne belated Welcome to GC sorry I have only just seen your post.... you are certainly in good hands with Sheal

 

The sun hits it late morning the garden is not quite South facing. Am I ok to prune the red Robbin now?

 

Hello @Dragonfly Dianne, to the forum.
If I may offer you some advice on your veggie patch, you would be wise to give it a good dig over in the next few weeks then come autumn give it a generous amount of manure, then either dig it again or let the worms do the work for you over the winter! Having said that don't manure where you will be growing your carrots...they don't like it & they will fork, you will end up with all sorts of strange shaped carrots!
It won't be long before you will be able to buy your bulbs, one more little tip...I buy my snowdrops 'in the green' from the garden centre or market etc, I find snowdrop bulbs don't always flourish in my garden.
Happy gardening & I look forward to seeing your progress

 

Thank you so much for the good advice! I Still need to move 3 plants from the end so I will use that area for carrots and start preparing the first part it's so exciting!
I love spring flowers, there was not many in the garden this year!

 

I love spring flowers too, I'm not a fan of the winter so the second I see the bulbs pushing through the soil I know spring is in the way, a lovely time of year .
Have you decided what veg you are going to grow @Dragonfly Dianne?

 

Thinking, carrots, potatoes, peas, tomatos, open minded at the moment. I did grow strawberries this year but the birds kept winning me to them lol, I will cover them next year!

 

Yes, Photinia is best pruned in spring or summer but preferably not from mid August onwards.

It sounds like the area gets a reasonable amount of sun which is a good thing. I would put some taller plants towards the back of the border, just in front of the shrubs and then shorter plants further forward towards the front of the bed. Herbaceous plants can be planted now although you probably won't see much in the way of flowers being late in season.

Why is it when it comes to suggesting plants my mind goes blank, sorry? I'll get back to you on this Dianne and hopefully meanwhile other members will help you.

 

Sounds like a good plan, how about some French beans, runner beans & onions too! All easy to grow & give you a good lot of veg! For me there's nothing nice than eating French beans raw...picked & eaten in less than a minute!
Raddish, lettuice & spring onions are also really easy to grow