WHAT CAN I PLANT????? I'M NEW & LOST

Make a mental note before you going shopping about whether your soil is very dry or whether there are patches that permanently seem damp and make note about which bits are sunny and which are shady or part-shade. When you go bush shopping, check the lables carefully - they will tell you how big the bush gets and whether they like dry or damp soil and how much sun they like.

I always find when starting a new garden bed, it is a good idea to start with a structure of shrubs and then fill the inbetween bits with perennials. Then (since it is bound to be a bit gappy for the first couple of years) I fill in the remaining gaps with annuals by just scattering seeds.

Hope this helps - I can't help with specific plants as I don't know your climate. :-)

I can't give you lists either as I live in England, but a good bit of advice is, carrying on from Sid's, go and have a browse at the Garden Centre each month and 'spot the plants' in flower that take your fancy, making sure from the labels or from staff advice that they will be OK in your particular garden site. You can certainly also plant quick-growing annuals now for colour in a few weeks' time! You will be surprised how quockly you can build up a good selection to beautify your garden.

To give yourself a bit of "space" this year, why not buy a selection of hardy annual seeds, mix them up, and sow the mixture. You'll find that as long as you keep them watered to begin with, something will come up, and they will look really pretty. The other thing is that as some in the mixture peak early and die down others will be following on, so the show should last longer. I've done this myself, and the effect was stunning.

At the end of your summer you can harvest the seeds to sow again next year if you like, and then dig the ground over, clearing the weeds and getting the soil ready for a new start.

During the course of the summer you could be reading up on what does well in your area, and chatting to any of your neighbours whose gardens are good, to find out what perennial plants and shrubs do well.