I want to start my first garden but don’t know where to start and what flowers will bloom year round.?

I live in Belgium and the weather and sun are very tricky! But I really want to do this and dont know where to start. Please help!

I want to start my first garden but don’t know where to start and what flowers will bloom year round.?
Its not rocket science and don't be intimidated ,first thing I would suggest walk around your local area and have a look at all of the gardens especially the ones that are not maintained regularly and see what is growing ,take careful note if it is in shade or sun and then do the same ,people always complement me on my garden but it is really survival of the fittest not my gardening skills ,if something grows well I replant if it dies I move on to another plant .
Reply:If you really want to do the job properly and save money and effort then plan it out on paper first. Put down your entire block of land including the house mark where doors and windows go. Then mark the position of things that are already there and unlikely to be removed, like trees Then place permanent features that you'd like to have. A chook pen for instance or a gold fish pond or maybe even a swimming pool. It's easiest if you use graph paper and call a 1cm square 1 metre.





Next plan paths. they are the bones of your garden. First off pencil in straight lines connecting doors and gates. Then round these off. Don't plan silly wiggly paths plan for wide sweeping curves, they're more natural. Main paths should be at least 1.25 metres across. You'll soon lose some to plants that spill over and look to nice to cut back. Then make paths to create Island beds a bed shouldn't be wider than you can reach across to weed the centre.





If you don't know the names of plants just say like (a) shrub, 1m X 2m white flowers scented. (b) ground cover, blue flowers. Then you can find plants that match the description either in books or by asking at the nursery or friends or here.





Try to keep it simple. There's a lot of different kinds of environment. In a small garden it's best to keep to one. For example A herb garden will easily fill a 1/4 acre block. repetition is good. In nature you see one dominant tree species two or three understory sp of tall bush a dozen types of small bush. Down on the ground it can be more eclectic.





It's just like inside having furniture that is all in the same style. A rose, a cactus, a foxglove and a camelia will not look good next to each other.





Having your garden divided into beds by well defined paths makes maintenance easy. it's like, "oh that bed needs some work, but that one is looking good" you know where to start


:-) .





That's where you start gardening, a big sheet of graph paper, a ruler and a pencil and a set of french curves is handy. Good luck.
Reply:I agree with "tessajan". Go to your local nursery, but more than this, grab pictures from magazines. Grab pics on the type of garden you would like, eg: Cottage, native, modern, japanese etc.. (or a bit of everything).. Show your nursery person what sort of effect you would like and they should be able to show you the plants you need.


Happy Gardening !


Maz (Ms Mazscapes Nursery, Morwell. Vic. Australia)
Reply:I suggest visiting a local nursery if there is one around, and then getting the information you need there. Because they will know everything about what works and what does not in your specific area. : D

Perfect semi formal makeup