Our new garden and why blogging is better than essay writing...

Hello and welcome to Goy Tanya

You could start by getting your spring bulbs planted so you have colour to look forward to in the Spring.

Visit the local garden centres to see what is in bloom to at this time of year.

And try to have a garden that may be in colour or bloom every month.

Happy Gardening

Study Goyer's garden photos for ideas.
Decide where you 'dry garden' section will be with Grasses and other plants that dont mind hot weather.
Take a photo of the blank canvas. Have enlarged to A4 size.
Cut out pictures from old seed catalogues of the flowers
and shrubs and trees you like, compost bin, greenhouse etc.
Place the pictures on the photo. Move them about
working out which plants and lawns you would like to have and where. This will keep you occupied most of the winter.

Welcome to Goy Tanya, hope you've been good and written that essay, not a good idea to get sidetracked on here, we all know from experience that its very easy to do.
A good way to get some ideas is to browse the blogs and see what members have in their gardens during the different months, see what appeals to you then look them up, the A-Zpages at the bottom of the pages are very helpful, now is a good time to start planting the spring bulbs, not tulips though they are best planted in Nov, happy gardening....

Welcome Tanya you will have loads of help on here , Diane that's a good idea !

I hope your break from essay writing was beneficial to you. It's good to have a break :)
Welcome to this site. I hope you'll show us some photos of what you do to your garden :)

Welcome from me too. It is important to know little bit about the plant before you buy it. Plants are like people they have their likes and dislikes. Some like sun and some not so much, some like lots of water and some not so much, some like acidic soil and many will not grow in it...and so on. Happy gardening....it will Grow on You.

Hey!

From what I gather, a lot of the soil is of a clay consistency - is that good or bad?

Some plants are good in clay, some dislike it. Clay can be very fertile and retains water. However in winter, it can get very wet and unmanageable, resulting in water logging. A lot of people with clay type soil dig in humus (eg leaf mould, homemade compost, bark or horse manure). This breaks up the small clay particles and improves the soil quality. If you want an good overview, there is an article written by the RHS, just google " how to improve clay soils". Hope this helps, happy gardening. One more tip, don't rush, take your time, and enjoy your gardening experience.

Welcome Tanya. I am gardening on clay too. Dig in as much compost as you can, it really helps, and grit as well. That helps with drainage. Clay is a good growing medium if you put that bit of extra effort in. It gets very wet and cold in winter, which plants generally don't like. That's why you need the grit and compost, to break it up and improve drainage. But you don't need to do it all at once..add it as you are planting.

Roses generally love clay by the way! :))

As for what to plant....plant what you love! And try to observe the sun and shady areas and plant accordingly. Also, plant some shrubs for structure and make sure you have lots of evergreens for winter interest. I find that I tend to plant for the opposite season. Just now I will be planting for winter, and in the autumn I'll be planting for the spring. In late winter I'll be planting herbaceous for the summer, and i. Spring I seem to plant things that will carry the colour through the autumn. That's a generalisation of course!

most importantly....enjoy it!! :)))