Student garden - what to plant?

libby.wilkinson

Hi new here.
My daughter has a student house with a small urban garden - very overgrown but with lots of potential. An old Victorian property with Victorian boarders - I think ( currently overgrow).
No grass, all concrete/ patio and brick surrounds - good sized boarders all round a small patio. Mature ash tree. Sheltered not sure about aspect.
She is planning to live at property for 2 years and her environment is very important to her - currently just weeds and a few overgrown shrubs. 
She has plenty of room for spring flowering bulbs - is it too early to plant them? 
Going with her today to weed. I have some plants from my garden that I’m going to divide at a later date(?)
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated - her budget is about £100 ( but she may need to spend some money on screening the back area - I was thinking of just a cheapest rattan type ...

Ladybird4

Hello libby.wilkinson and welcome to the forum. It is still a little bit too early to plant bulbs. The best thing to do is to tidy up the area by weeding and cutting back the shrubs (depending on what shrubs they are, as pruning some now might remove next year's flowering shoots) so that a clearer view can be made of the planting area. It would really help if you could include some pictures of the garden so we can offer more advice. Its great that you will be able to give her some pieces of your plants. Again, depending on the plants, you could take pieces off them now and put them into pots then your daughter would be able to place the pots on the borders to get an idea of how they look in situ before planting them out.

josusa47

As students are notoriously impecunious, she might find it worth her while to reserve some space for vegetables.  Tomatoes, beans, courgettes and salads are simple enough. Sign up to Freecycle for garden tools,  and look on this forum's seed swap thread for veg and flower seeds.

libby.wilkinson

Thanks Josusa47.
3 of them are vegetarians so I think that would be popular - great idea! 🙂

libby.wilkinson

Thanks ladybird4 - I suspected it was a bit early! Great idea about the photos - will take some today. 
Cuttings from home and friends/family will now be pitted up - she’d really like some herbs - I can certainly help out with a few of those. Many thanks.

Ladybird4

You are most welcome.

Fairygirl

Hi @libby.wilkinson - good advice already. 
It's just coming up to bulb season, so it's worth taking a look at the online specialists, and you can then place an order now for delivery next month or so.  Many popular bulbs sell out quickly so it's worth doing. Only problem is - a hundred quid can be used very quickly 
If you can find out the general aspect of the garden that helps with advice, but if you have a border on every side, it makes it easier. Some  veg crops will do better in a bit of shade, and some like more sun etc. Many are more than happy in pots too - especially some of the herbs, and doing successive sowings of things like lettuce will keep a good supply going through the season. You can also grow food crops in with ornamentals.

One thing I would advise her to do is to prep the ground well, as most plants will benefit from a good start. She can do that over the next month or two and that will pay dividends when she comes to sowing seed next spring etc. 

Definitely get her to use the seed swap here on the forum. I've got some mange tout and wild rocket seeds if they're of any use. The rocket makes an attractive plant in it's own right too. PM me if you want,and I can stick some in the post   

bookmonster

As a student I really appreciated potted herbs as herbs are easy to grow but expensive to buy fresh.

josusa47

josusa47 said:

As students are notoriously impecunious, she might find it worth her while to reserve some space for vegetables.  Tomatoes, beans, courgettes and salads are simple enough. Sign up to Freecycle for garden tools,  and look on this forum's seed swap thread for veg and flower seeds.

It's just dawned on me, students tend to be elsewhere in the summer, so my "bright" idea might be a non-starter.

libby.wilkinson

Thanks Fairygirl - already pouring over bulbs in catalogues - I’m going to buy a couple of big bags and then let my daughter have some whilst I have the rest. We have just moved house so perfect timing.

libby.wilkinson

Here are a few photos of the garden. The back wall which is covered with ivy is north east facing; the tree faces north west - bathed in sunshine today. The border with the fuchsia and mock orange faces south east and the house wall faces southwest - today a real suntrap.
The patio area nearest the gate and to the side of the house is rather dark and damp - the flooring was covered in decayed matter that was very green - shaded by neighbouring house. 
The central patio area is nice and sunny. 
An area of difficulty is the area to the back of the north east facing wall - it had an area where all the garden clippings and branches had been dumped. We’ve cleared quite a bit and are thinking about getting rid of the dead tree stump covered in ivy. However there appears to be a bee’s ‘nest’ in the composted material - so I guess we’ll have to leave that area for a bit - the bees weren’t at all aggressive and we don’t want to harm them.