Some help for a beginner - borders

Hi all

I have decided to do something nice with a border in my garden but have no gardening experience whatsoever. I would like to put some flowers in, I like flowers that don't grow very high and cover the area in lots of colour and don't have gaps so you can see the soil in between. I don't want lots of different plants at different heights, ideally just one type of flower that will fill the area.

Could anyone suggest a flower I could buy? The spot is sunny all day and is south facing (shady in the photo I've taken at 9am). I'm going to take out everything including the dead palm tree things and just put the flowers in. I would like to buy my new flowers today!

Also I've been busy taking out this tall pink flower which I'm not very keen on -- can anyone tell me if it is a flower or a weed? Thank you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, it's really kind and hope my pictures work...

 

If you're looking for something 'permanent' (i.e. other than bedding plants), I'm afraid you're going to have some bare earth patches for a bit until things 'fill out'. If you try to plant this sort of stuff too close together now, whilst they're still young, they'll just choke one another and nothing will survive very well.

You don't say what sort of soil you have, clay, sandy, something in between? It's a wee bit difficult to see from the photos, but I'm guessing that palm will have taken quite a bit of goodness out of the soil so you'll need to put some back. When you're buying your plants, I'd get some decent compost too (unless you've got some homemade somewhere). Rather than spending a fortune, I'd be inclined to give that bit of ground a jolly good dig over then, as you plant your plants, dig a hole twice or even 3 times the size you need and mix in a good helping of compost along with some slow release plant food (something like 'Growmore' et.al.)

As for plants, perhaps something like Hemerocallis (common name Daylilies) they come in various colours, are clump forming, flower for about 3 months (die back in winter) and are pretty tough and will survive in most types of soil. Mine are 'Stella de Oro' (dwarf, yellow) which grow to 9" - 10". Or Geum Borisii? Again an herbaceous plant, clump forming with small orange flowers and again about 9" high at most.

I'm sure others will make loads more suggestions.

As for not wanting a 'bare earth' policy (), you could plant your more permanent stuff and intersperse with bedding plants - pansies, lobelia, salvia, petunia, begonia, gazania, nemesia and so on, will all spread out a bit during the coming months and give you colour, quite probably until the first frosts.

Just as a BTW - the shops and garden centres are just beginning to get their summer bedding plants in. Even though this last week has been more like mid-summer than mid-spring, I'd suggest you put off buying too much summer bedding just yet. It is only April, we could still get some frost. I'm anxious to fill my small beds where I usually put bedding plants, but I'm holding off buying anything at least for another couple of weeks or so - just in case (apart from which the choice will be greater in 3 or 4 weeks time).