h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As we've got some free time (the first for ages ) we've decided that we should really sort out the garden. It's a bit of a wasteland at the moment - but as it spent a lot of last year looking like a jungle, I guess it's an improvement.

So, we've got a garden to fill with plants. And we have a huge garden (roughly 12m x 6m). And neither me nor Dave are natural gardeners .

We've just about worked out that we have a south-facing garden with neutral clay soil... but what plants does that mean we can put in? I've got a scale drawing of our garden with all the borders laid out and the patios drawn in, and I have no idea how we're going to fill all that space with plants - assuming we can find plants that will go! And that's not even considering if the plants are annuals, perennials, hardy, tender, fast growing...or if they flower in spring, summer, or autumn...

Who knows, maybe this time next week I'll be a gardening convert, but right now it all seems far too much hassle!

Those "Garden Expert" books are sometimes helpful. I put in some nice bedding plants about 5 years ago, after consulting the "Bedding Plant Expert" book, but they were a pain in the rear as I had to go out and dead-head them every weekend. I rather like bulbs myself, as you don't have to do an awful lot to them. Ditto roses - fairly low maintenance.

Liz
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I was thinking bulbs - they do seem to be the ideal low maintenance plant . Other than that, they've got to be slow growing and extremely hardy, and probably perennials rather than anything I have to replace after a year.

We got one of those "Gardening for Dummies" books, but the trouble is we could do with it to have far more pictures than it does . The section on soils and which way your garden faces was extremely useful, though.

We're off to B&Q tonight to get some plants, so we'll see what happens. I've been off work today (that time of the month affecting my belly ) so I've been trying to draw up a planting plan. I think I've got one, but Alan Titchmarsh would probably pull his hair out about it .