I have a new house and I don’t know how to look after my garden!!

Hello all!

I’m Sarah and I’ve just found your site. I have just bought a house in Argyll, Scotland and my garden needs a lot of TLC. It currently is surrounded by small trees and bushes and sadly only gets the sunshine for a few hours in the morning.

It is very plain but I still think beautiful how it is. However I want to bring some colour and more life to it and I do not have a single clue how to start.

I’d like to build some border boxes and plant some flowers.

Can anyone tell me how you start to create a garden??

Many thanks in advance!

Sarah

 

Well you live in a very beautiful place with the loch and mountains to look at from your house and garden! It’s also a fairly mild climate up there on the west coast.

As to what to grow and where to start...... what do you like and just as important, what’s your soil like?

 

Hello Sarah and welcome to the forum, I think you've made the best start you can, joining this forum and asking for help, a lot more wiser than me on here but I would say to begin is decide what you want your garden for i:e wildlife, showy plants, veggies etc then you can start to narrow it down with plants for your situation.

 

@Redwing thank you and you are right I could look at that view all day so now want a lovely garden to look at it from. What kind of soil you ask? Good question!! I have no idea. How do I find out??

@mazambo thank you for your reply! To be honest I don’t have anything specific in mind. We attract a lot of birds so I’d love to do anything that encourages the wildlife.

I would like flowers - I don’t have any idea what kind as to be perfectly honest I don’t really know the names other than the basics.

Is it possible to plant now and have flowers this year?

 

Hello Sarah, welcome to GC Get a plain paper drawing pad, or a squared one if you're mathematical and want to do it exactly to scale. A3 if you want to do the whole plan on one sheet, but A4 works if you divide into separate areas. Sketch out the existing borders, paths, buildings and trees/shrubs. Mark NSEW and add useful but not particularly attractive things like washing line, dustbins, compost and bonfire heaps. The experts recommend that you live with an existing garden for a year, to see what treasures there are already, but there's no reason you can't re-shape borders and add to them. Decide whether you want straight, formal lines or curved. It can transform a garden just making the lawn a geometrical shape, circle, oval etc, and planting up the gaps. Deccide on your favourite colours and combinations. Then, have a word with your neighbours (it's a good icebreaker) about what grows well in their gardens. It's a quicker method than just looking for a whole year! I can't help with specific plants but I'm sure someone with a similar climate will be along in no time to advise ....
But yes, you've got plenty of time to prepare for and grow/plant flowers for this year.

 

@noisette47 thank you that is a great idea! I will do that in the morning and this will give me a Great place to start. Although I have not long had the house I have been there almost weekly for the past year and a half and other than a large rhododendron bush round the side there are no flowers around ☹️☹️

 

Welcome.
I would wait and see what comes up this year first.
Draw up a list of plants you like, where in the garden you want them, and decide how much time blood sweat tears and cash you want to spill
Dont go daft in the garden centres , take your time , build it slowly with thought and enjoy it.

 

Hi and welcome.
Make a long term plan if you intend to stay in the house for a long time.
Don't try to tackle it all at once.

Start with the bit nearest the house, get that as you want it first. The sight of this from your window will encourage you to tackle the rest.

 

What colour is your soil? Does it dry quickly after rain? Or does it hold on to the water?

I think rhododendrons like lime in the soil but I'm not totally sure. Experts will be along soon.

 

Thanks guys. You’re right I’m in no rush and I plan on being here forever so want to put a lot of work in to make it just right for us. Delighted I’ve found this forum - overwhelmed with how helpful you all are!

 

Hi @Cedarhouse - welcome! A (healthy) nearby rhododendron should mean the soil is acidic - which gives you plenty of potential with camellias, heathers etc. A limy soil is (IMHO) a bit more limiting. If you are desperate for quick results you can get some primroses from the garden centre at the moment, then later get some summer bedding (petunias etc) to fill in while you decide your longer term plans. And things like marigolds (calendula), sunflowers, clarkia are easy from seed and will encourage you while you are learning about your garden.

 

Welcome Cedarhouse, not only to Gardeners Corner but to Scotland as well, assuming you are not from this area.

Argyll is beautiful and was considered by myself before moving here to a rural area outside Inverness. Your pictures suggest a semi rural/rural location and that's a consideration when starting on your garden. A garden that is pruned and preened to look immaculate will look very out of place, so a more relaxed idea is the way to go when planning and planting. If you have neighbours close by, study their gardens and plants which will give you ideas to work with.

Our friends here have given you some lovely ideas to start things off, and once you have some plans to work with your first consideration should be whether you want to plant trees and shrubs - and where. They really need to go in first as they take longer to establish. You will find once you get started and as time moves on that more ideas will come to you about how you want the garden to look and those initial plans will be altered more than once.

We're right at the beginning of the new gardening season so you have plenty of time to introduce colour. Don't worry about getting beds established in time for planting, there's always pots and troughs you can fill with bedding plants to bring you some colour this year. As Doghouse Riley has said, it's better to start nearer your house for something to look out onto while you work the rest of the garden, and don't take it all on at once as often it becomes overwhelming.

Good luck and we're all here to help you along the way.

 

So glad your not in a rush, that is the worse thing to do when planting a garden, it takes years. And if you choose wisely, they will all survive, thus saving you money in the long run and time. Besides gleaming knowledge from this forum, I would suggest a couple things, find your local library and take out lots of picture books of shrubs, and plants that have good descriptions in them, tuck yourself into a couch with a good pot of tea and start a list. The second thing is know the zone for your area, so your plants will come back each year. As, where you live all is sleeping now you have time to develop a list. You also want to pay attention to shaded areas, and sunny areas, divide out a list for both types. Also blooming times. My garden blooms continually, as one plant rests another pops up. I also like placement of scented plants where the wind carries the breeze to me sitting on the deck filling the air with fragrance. Yes, I started and completed much of this prior to this forums conception. The other thing to do later as your area wakes up is take notice to the native plants that you can incorporate to your garden, they usually are very strong. And you said, you like to attract birds, birds do like conifers, for winters protection, there are so many beauties out there of those. Good luck my dear. You can see my gardens on a thread here, redstar's USA garden. It will pop you to many of my You Tube channels of my walk abouts.