Thoughts for starting a garden at this time of year, please

Can I just say please don’t plant Buddleia. It seeds everywhere and is choking UK native plants particularly near railway lines and on waste ground. Instead of Hawthorn, Blackthorn and other native species on which our insects depend it is taking over. It is becoming a pest and as far as I understand it may be listed as such by Natural England.

Try Imperial Little Gem for a compact deep purple Lavender.

In the photo I posted top right a wooden box has been built by previous owner. It has soil in it. I am thinking of putting herbs in it so MaizieD - your suggestions above are very welcome thank you.

Lavender, bees love it.

However, try to buy a variety that doesn't sprawl, what we bought as Hidcote, a neat variety, must have been wrongly labelled as it sprawls untidily.

Oregano does have a tendency to seed everywhere, as does feverfew. I thought we'd got rid of the feverfew which was seeding everywhere years ago but noticed a bit clump near the border with our neighbour.

The only green bits in our lawn are clumps of oregano.

If you fancy a bit of a herb garden, sage, thyme and marjoram or oregano are very popular with bees. Also, of course, lavender.

Nepeta, 'six hills giant' is another good bee plant. It's no good if you have a cat, though, they love it and will lovingly rub out the new growth in the spring

I agree buddleia, also Viburnum, which has the bonus of berries for the birds.
I also find that the bees, particularly the worker bees, adore the Persicaria flowers.

Buddleia is a magnet for butterflies and will grow pretty much anywhere. Cotoneaster and Ceanothus are loved by bees and evergreen too.

I am very grateful for these continuing ideas.

Any thoughts on easy to grow shrubs that attract bees / butterflies?

Wilcos have lots of cheap bulbs which are very good.

Hello, I wish you well. I am changing my garden around and when finding a plant I can no longer use, am putting them on Freecycle. I have received plants this way and donated lots.

Just a thought as completely restocking can be expensive. If you don't seen any advertised, put in a wanted notice and see what transpires!

I'd hold off for a bit before planting shrubs as more large areas have been officially declared as areas of drought. Someone on another thread advised another poster to hold off for a while. You could, if you want to, puddle them in and continue watering but with water shortages thos could be difficult.

Shrubs will make roots over the winter too, perhaps planting November onwards might be better.

Why not draw up a plan, use coloured pencils to sketch in a plans of colour, work out size etc. An exciting project for the next few weeks. You can find suggestions for layouts online too.

Butterflies and bees seem to like purple flowering plants best.

I bought some very cheap lily bulbs from Thompson & Morgan in late spring (48 for £8 + p&p). They are flourishing and in full flower now, which I didn't expect from planting them much later than usual. They now send me a daily email with real bargains. I've had one or two things I really wanted and the quality is excellent. If you don't mind the daily badgering to buy it's worth getting on their mailing list.

I'm a new gardener too,never had time when I was working full time.I just started during the first lockdown.I buy a lot online from QVC they sell for a season ahead so next spring/summer plants on the site/programmes now.Sunday morning has garden stuff every week .
I'm happy with buying from them because they give advice and informaton about the plants they're selling live on air.
I'm very pleased with how the plants I've bought have done .
It will never be the stunning garden it wa swhen my Dad and FIL cared for it but its looked really good this year ...and I can only improve.
QVC sells from reputable suppliers and has a guarantee of quality .

Agreed Wolwol. VERY helpful thank you. But I have to say I feel just a little bit daunted by the wealth of good ideas

I will be looking around in the next day or two to see what is doing well locally.

Thank you so much for this thread

Yes, I’ve noticed that you can buy quite large plants nowadays. As pointed out further back, this can be a good time of year for bargains, too!

I now live close to a garden centre (with a cafe!) and five minutes drive from my dd, who has a well-established garden, so I’ll be nicking cuttings from her, too.

Suedonim I think that Garden Centres sell so many plants that are quite big nowadays that a garden can look quite mature in no time at all. Costs more though.

Our fruit tree ( the only one that didn’t die) is 10 years old this year and is heaving with apples. Not sure if our new ones, planted last year, will make it.
So maybe 10 years for trees, but stick a buddleia in the ground and it will be 15 feet high in a couple of years, there are some lovely colours available and they attract small birds as well as butterflies.

I’m reading this thread with great interest, as I am starting a new garden from scratch, as well. I can’t check on what my neighbours are growing, as it’s a new-build scheme so we’re all on the start line.

My garden is south-facing, with a wall on the south side, which will be shaded. No worries about watering as I’m in Scotland and it’s rained a lot since we moved in ten days ago.

I did read an article recently which claimed it takes 10-20 years to be able to make a decent garden in a new build. If that’s really true, I may as well concrete it over as I’ll be almost 90 by then. ?

I’m going to do the soil-testing and take it from there.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, Douglas.

How fabulous to start a new garden.
Everyone has given you good suggestions lots of select.

My contribution is get something with hight. Up the fences or shrubs /bushes to give some impact so it doesn't look too flat.
Have fun.

That looks like a great start.
Autumn is a good time to plant because the soil is still warm and the rain (we hope0 will settle things in. You can get bare-rooted shrubs and fruit trees at this time of year and they are much cheaper than pot grown ones.
have fun!

Apologies if already mentioned but under the ‘Latest’ heading on here there’s a section for ‘Small garden ideas on a budget’ which looks very useful. I’ve never noticed it before but there are some great ideas.

I've been thinking that if our summers continue to be as hot then we need drought loving plants which don't need as much water.
How lovely to be creating a new garden; good luck with your project.

A good project over the winter would be to fix a water butt to the rainwater drainpipe on the back of your house. Your plants will prefer rainwater to tap water and you will save on your water bills in future.

Having the wild flower meadow right outside your windows will be lovely in the sunny months but might just be bare earth in winter. Even in the wild flower patch some structure of perhaps evergreen shrubs will pay off. If you choose small shrubs with berries that will be a help to wildlife too. Don't forget a bird bath.

Could you cut a little hedgehog gate into the bottom of your fence somewhere? If you do that and put out water and food you might well get some hedgehogs visiting your garden.

How about growing some fruit trees against your fence?

I like the layout of your garden and your ideas. It's going to be amazing. Will you send some more photos later please?

Abitbarmy

Regarding the wildflower area, it depends on whether you want an annual wildflower patch that needs re-sowing every year, or perennial wildflowers that can be left, more or less, to get on with it. You can buy seed mixes for both. The annual ones are very pretty but both have benefits for wildlife.

They do need some gardening input to remain in their original state, don't they? Annuals 'should' seed themselves and come back year after year, but they'll dwindle if crowded out by vigorous perennial wildflowers (I was going to say 'weeds' ? ) The wildflower patch has to be managed.

A friend once told us about the roundabouts in their city which had been seeded with wildflowers and then left to do their own thing. After a few years they were completely dominated by a few vigorous species.

Mind you the weeds wildflowers in my conventional beds don't seem to have that problem