Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Looking for some advice. I have a small, sloped garden that I have no idea what to do with.I don't have the time or money to do a bit job on it at the moment but would like to introduce some plants to start sprucing it up a bit. I have no idea where to start!

Here's the space

https://imgur.com/a/MT4LrMs

how to stop birds pinching the berries

..get a cat?

: ]

First of my Roses is out!

Beautiful, really lovely.

couple of things spring to mind - some borders down each side and some screen at the back.

depending on how much you mind the available space being encroached, you could plant some shrubs at the back, and / or a climbing plant.

Have a browse here for suitable plants:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants

Thanks Chas, sounds spot on.

I don't mind the space being encrouched at all, i'm thinking some climbing plants on the sides would give us some privacy too.

Plenty of cats belonging to others in our garden don't seem to help much!

My previous few posts in this thread might make it sound like I have some idea about gardening, which is unfortunately not the case.

We had some wildflower "meadowmat" put down a few years ago - basically fancy wildflower turf. It did well for a few years but then a lot of it (mostly in the shade) seemed to die and weeds took over , although part of the problem was that I couldn't tell the differences between the weeds and the plants we wanted: it's quite a fine line with indigenous wild flowers anyway.

We weeded it all a few weeks ago and I sowed some wildflower seed for woodland and shade which I'm hoping will start doing something in the next few months.

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Has anyone had any luck with wildflowers from seed? How are yours doing @dicki?

I did a lot of research and bought them from somewhere that's well respected and followed the instructions but I know it's a bit of a lottery.

On plant identification, can anyone ID this one? I'm hoping it's a survivor from the wildflower matting. The out of focus flowers look quite a lot like buttercups but the plant itself looks more like weed 😂

Ah this is meadow buttercup which was in the original mix so definitely a survivor.

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Plenty of cats belonging to others in our garden don't seem to help much!

..get a scarecrow?

I got some of that reflective bird scaring tape that flutters about the other year. It worked for about a week. Blackbirds are quite clever!

Like I said I don't really mind too much. The whole point of trying to get a wildflower meadow going with native species is to benefit wildlife. Plus it does look nice when it's not half dead...

got some of that reflective bird scaring tape

..you know I was going to suggest tinsel!

A couple of different types of Marigolds, some petunia, lobelia and pansies coming up now. Will have plenty spare in a few weeks for anyone aiming for your grandparents garden look.

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The ants have started farming, yes, so killing them is also on my list of things to do. Will go for the horticultural soap and nettle sprays, not sure I fancy taking delivery of a box of ladybirds. Cheers for the tips all.

I threw down a load of wildflower mix when I first cleared the garden. There's not much between a weed and a wildflower, it's just your inclination. It's become less mixed over the years as understandably some things don't get on with the conditions. The soil is generally a bit too rich and they have to fight against the other "wildflowers" (namely borage and forget-me-nots). It all self seeds, comes up, flowers, dies down, and I pull it up as I see fit. I suspect the creeping buttercup came with one of those mixes, but I can't be sure. I try and get rid of it. Also a tall yellow flowering thing which definitely came in the mix has been nice for the last few years but this year has somewhat taken over.

Borage seems to do fine in the shade, bees love it and it's good for the ground and compost bin - but it will try and take over.

I hate borage. When I first moved into my place my back garden was 90% borage. Massive trifid bastards. Little did I know that mature borage is prickly and irritating, but I found out soon enough. The root is huge and doesn’t need much to be left behind for the damn thing to bounce back. Wankers, all of them.

We cover our blueberry bush in netting for precisely this reason. With a wigwam of bamboo poles to give the bush a bit of space.

Handily it stops my daughter pinching all the berries as well.

Ah. Mine was mostly ground elder. I find the borage tolerable in comparison, and useful in the sense that it hogs the space but is easy enough (relatively) to dig up when you want to plant something. I think if I was a more organised gardener I'd view it differently.

not much between a weed and a wildflower, it's just your inclination

..as another hippie in this thread put it a while back -

"If you like it, it's not a weed!"

Is the slope as steep as it looks?

Long term I'd think about terracing, or making some sort of cool seating cut out in that slope, so I wouldn't do stuff that would impact or negate that.

In the meantime;

• Sow the lawn with poppy (california poppies are nice and different) and cornflowers (assuming it is that steep do you use it much?)
  
• add climbers - Malvern Rose is a really nice rambling rose, jasmin is always nice
  
• pack some pretty wall flowers into that wall - there's this great stuff with purple flowers I forgot the name of that I think the Romans brought over.
  
• add some seating at the bottom - car boot sale season is upon us, we got some great old school sports benches for £15 and a locker bench for £12 delivered.
  

The slope is 1 metre in height, the whole length of the garden is 6 metres so yeah it's pretty steep.

It's not without its advantages though, here's my son sledding down it in the snow - http://imgur.com/a/Ag48hxx

The plan is to terrace It and do some sort of integrated seating, which should be cool. But other bits in the house will take priority so that's a bit off.

Climbers and wallflowers defo and I'll look into poppies that could be interesting. Nice one!

there's this great stuff with purple flowers I forgot the name of that
I think the Romans brought over.

Fleabane?

https://www.alchemy-works.com/erigeron.html

Now for the fleabane connection: in myth, Hephaistos tried to sexually
assault Athena, but she evaded him and his fiery semen fell to Mother
Earth, engendering Erikhthonios, a serpent-man (who became the first
king of Athens) - and fleabane. In grimoires and older magickal texts
like the Greek magical papyri, references to "semen of Hephaistos"
mean fleabane.

Just ask in the garden centre for fiery semen, they'll sort you out.

This

Edit:

Better picture and although this may not be, I meant campanula

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Amazing what a supermarket sells for £1.99

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Beautiful.

Looking for some advice. I have a small, sloped garden that I have no idea what to do with

The slope is 1 metre in height, the whole length of the garden is 6 metres so yeah it's pretty steep

Hill reps.