Complete Novice Alert! Garden Project

Welcome. I think we need a lot more information. Are you intending to keep the flowers or go over to vegetables? The plants in the beds are flowers. You have a good green house there but it sounds like your getting rid of it eventualy, why is that? Is the lawn going to stay? or are you planning on growing veg there? You have a good garden there, does it face south or is it in shadow from the house most of the day. If your intending to grow veg you could be sowing some seeds now such as lettuce, leeks, cabbages on the shelf in the GH now. But you need a plan and to help with that we need to know your intentions. To give you inspiration look up allotments or gardening on you tube, its a great learning resource.

A total garden makeover????

I'd be tempted to grow things in your greenhouse...and maybe dig up your lawn and put in spuds and a few other veg...and take piccies of your plants/flowers throughout the year.
I think it looks as if you have a very colourful garden, with plenty of plants and flowers you may wish to keep.
No point in rushing...decide what you like , mark them for keeping and then give the others away to other peeps ( never throw them away- they will give others a lot of pleasure if rehomed!)
You could always grow a few other veg in rubble sacks/tubs if you are really keep to get a supply of fruit/veg established.
As Bill says...a bit more info on your plans will help us to give more useful advice!!

1. twisted hazel; cream hellebores. In the background, blue hyacinths
2. magnolia (tree on the right)
3. cream camellia; bluebells; pink hyacinth. I can't see the rest, you need some better closeups for ID
4. greenhouse !
5. zantedeschia (arum lily) in the middle (large leaves)

The best advice with existing shrubs and perennial flowers is to leave it all for the first summer and see what you have got and what you want to keep. Mark the spots where your favourite things grow and those you want to propagate and then you can dig them out and divide them in the autumn at the end of the growing season, ready to plant out in new positions for the next year.

After twenty years of gardening I finally discovered the 'square foot' approach which is really wonderful for vegetable gardening. Don't get bogged down in the 'dogma' of this approach and all the nonsense about 'magic mixes' but the essential approach of a four foot or metre square bed divided into foot squares is what makes it work. You treat each square as a separate unit for sowing, at tight spacings, and concentrate on enriching the soil in each square with drainage materials to open the soil and good compost. I have made a simple wooden foot square frame which I find helps me a lot in planting and sowing and adding compost.

Since I adapted this method, even though I do it on a large scale, the amount of food I can grow has increased tremendously, and psychologically, you can always see a single metre square bed as an easy and manageable job. When you look at a large weed filled plot, it is easy to get depressed and give up. But working one small bed at a time, you soon get the whole lot done.

Good luck with your first garden.

They don't even need tidying up: remember it's early early spring so nothing will look at its best just yet.
Like Bertie says, leave it a season (a year) to see what you have, and decide what you like and what you don't. You can't tell right now, because most of your stuff is still dormant

Hi all,

Thanks for your quick replies, loving them!

For my garden I'd like to keep it, just want to know what to do with the borders, if they are weeds or not and if they are actually plants, How do I tidy them up without killing them? Would love to plant to flowers to add more color

Bill HH - Going to keep the greenhouse, started another thread for advice with that, just planted my first tomato seeds.
Two Sheds - You genius Will pick out my favorites and now I know what they are I can get more!
BertieFox - Great advice, will make a small patch near the greenhouse for some onions and potatoes for this spring/summer. Should be manageable and won't destroy my enthusiasm if it goes tits up!

Cheers guys

Just cut off any dead (brown, manky) bits. Don't cut off fresh green bits

Hello BoY and welcome Your garden has the look of one that has been loved and cared for some years. A good mixture of plants that are in flower now so every hope that there will be lots more to come throughout the year.
Cut back any brown stalks and dead bits, take out any weeds that you spot and sit back and see what grows next.
Post a photo of any plants that you are unable to identify - somebody here will recognise it.

An established garden is a great thing to have. You'll be surprised what will turn up each season. Keep a photo diary of each season so you don't forget what you actually have.

And don't forget, that while splashes of colour are great, a lot of mixed foliage, different types of leaves and different colours from all the greens to silvery and reds, can be really attractive too.

It looks like the previous owners might have been through the Tits Up stages before and found what works for your house and soil.

If you're keen to really Do something in the garden, then finding where they had a veg garden and getting your veg/edible flowers/herbs going in the greenhouse would keep you busy and out of mischief