help....

Hi,

I am new to gardening - as in - I have never in my life planted a flower etc.

I have just had my garden decked and a couple of areas have gravel. I need a low maintenece garden due to my lack of experience but would still like it to look pretty. I was thinking to perhaps plant some shrubs in the gravel but wouldnt know where to start. I would also like to get some pots that I can put some plants/flowers in. Any ideas or suggestions ?

Vicki

As you are in Devon I would go for  lavender and rosemary, some pots of spring bulbs will look nice and then you can replace them with summer bedding(pelargoniums etc) followed by winter bedding(violas etc).

You could try some evergreen shrubs, the following don't need much attention. Hebe's are good, come in all sizes and flower at different times of the year,  Hebe Purple Pixie flowers nearly all year long.  Euonymous are good variegated shrubs and come in different shades. I could also recommend Lonicera nitida Baggenssen's Gold it really stands out especially this time of year. Another evergreen shrub you could try is Cistus (Rock Rose) has pretty pink or white flowers.  Hope this helps

are you saying I would plant spring bulbs now in winter ? forgive my ignorance.....

Yes, I know it seems stange, but you have to pot up or plant out spring flowering bulbs from September until November at the latest and after they have flowered just take off the spent flower heads and leave the stalk and leaves to die down, that replenishes the bulbs and enables them to flower the next spring. Don't worry I've been gardening for about 20 years and there are still things I need advice on and I have found the gardening community to be very helpful and forthcoming with advice. Gardener's World Mag is a good source too.

Toria2

This forum is good for general advice but could I also suggest get some reading matter from the library or buy from charity shop-there are loads of books that will help a beginner like yourself

Also as a novice keep it simple-a lot of gardening is relatively easy and common sense but you need to know what plants will survive a winter and those that don't like frost and what flowers when.

We all started somewhere and there is plenty of help on here-just don't try to do it all at once