Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Check out my new front garden! Due to be completed early this week.

Now what shall I plant in it?

• Bang on south facing and gets nice and hot as soon as the sun is out
  
• Plants need to be fairly drought tolerant, because it's tricky to get a hosepipe out there
  
  

I'm thinking lavender down the sides of the tiled path; other herbs under the bay window, where the soil gets baked by the sun and the radiated heat from the bricks; some flowers along the back of the front fence, to look out on from the living room...

...and a white rose climbing around the front door. Obviously.

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Portugal laurel is good for all round greenery.

Something like Cornus "midwinter fire" for winter colour:

Ooh - i like the look of that.

Laurel could work too - andni can ask the neighbours for one of theirs, which is running wild just on the other side of the fence.

The laurel suggestion has made me also think of planting out the bay tree that I have boxed on the other side of the garden - I can move the boxing fairly easily.

I was just watching The Gardener of the Decade fill a north-facing border but she puts a laurel in and they're rubbish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkdJeUhhuQw

Oh, the thread didn't update so that was supposed to be a reply to TW's post 20 hours ago, before people praised laurels. Embarrassing.

Fill it full of herbs! Bay, Rosemary, Camomile, Fennel, all the bee-loving things.

What would look awesome in the south facing garden is echiums but they take 3 years to flower:

Portugal laurel is a bit different to Prunus laurocerasus

Portugal laurel (Prunus lusitanica)

This is bang on, exactly what I'm after, just about to start planting random things in my shady garden and see what takes. Any tips or advice welcome, pretty much going to copy that video as I have no idea what im doing.

Shitpatch gardening. Something to aspire to: https://youtu.be/MM9JK0Ahw2A

Late to the party on this but we had a bunch of cornus planted last year in our front garden. Now is the time to buy it - you can get bare root stock now which is much cheaper than the potted plants that show up later in the year.

Cheers! Just had a look at your planting pics from last year. How tall have they grown in that time?

Folk on my road actually do this and do it pretty well.

The branches are about 3-4ft now but they are not super bushy but they are healthy and are budding now. But it is the end of the first year so they were just getting established and we have really poor clay soil so we hope the more they get established they better they will look. Right now the red stems against a black painted fence give some nice visual contrast when there is very little to see otherwise (which was kind of the point).

Brilliant.

"Shitpatches", lol.

Here in Berlin people plant stuff in them as well and even build little benches around them (especially in front of shops that sell alcohol to go). So the city has actually made this illegal in some of the districts.

My Hyacinth has made an appearance!

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Am I nuts to try and plant this mini hardy Eucalyptus in a bed on the north side?

https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/eucalyptus-gunnii-azura/kb2693TM

I'd really like a Eucalyptus, but the south wall is 80% shed and outhouse, with half of the remaining beds hidden from the house. I think this would work really well, especially providing some light green foliage in the winter. Plus it wont go nuts and would help drink up some of the water from the heavy clay on that side, which is also lower.

white rose climbing around the front door

Bit late, but if you haven't bought one can I recommend a Malvern Hills rambling rose?

https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/malvern-hills-rambling-rose

Excellent number and duration of roses throughout the season, and works well as a climber. The first pic shows how the colour transitions nicely from a subtle yellow to white as the flowers open (the later photos show it as more yellow than irl).

I'm wanting to get into composting this year.
My parents were producers of wonderful compost so I'd like to carry the torch. They've both sadly passed so looking for advice really.
You can get bins from Lewisham Council for £10.00.
Is a hot composting bin worth it?
Do you have a favourite book/website/forum with quality compost chat that you'd like to share?
Is it as simple as chopping it up small, a decent mix of all things? Does it slow down in winter?

The bigger the heap, the better generally, so if you've room make one using old pallets. If you do go for a bin from the council, then a mix of material is good, but try not to put too much grass, assuming you have a lawn, in it, that slows it down. Paper or cardboard, well shredded, can help. Don't put anything other than vegetable waste in it from the kitchen.

My 2p is decide how much time & energy you want to commit.

If you want to get super keen then heat and size are your friends. For e.g. GQT's Bob Flowerdew uses old chest freezers with the guts ripped out, part buried and spray painted to hide.

Then it's a case of adding layers of stuff that feeds it.

Personally I don't have time for any of that, so just throw everything in a tardis and dig the bottom out in autumn / winter depending on levels and throw it on the beds to break down further. I don't use any for potting as can't guarantee it's got hot enough and don't want to risk it.

I've now got a second spinning drum which I planned to put all the tardis contents in to store and break down further. I hoped that being theoretically tippable it would make emptying easier.

Am I nuts to try and plant this mini hardy Eucalyptus in a bed on the north side?

We have one in a very large pot on the north side. It is doing well now in it's third year and about 2 metres high. Not as bushy as some of the pictures but still one of the best things in a very scrappy back yard.

OK, thanks both. Some good solid advice there!

Over a year in a standard compost bin if you're turning it with a fork you fill it half a dozen times to get a bin of lovely dark, rich, crumbly compost. Everything goes in, loads of banana skins, vacuum bag, coffee, cut-up prunings and tons of grass clippings. When the brandlings turn up you know it's heated up and cooking nicely. Nobody knows where they come from. They're not earthworms but if you get the heap right they always rock up. Whenever you fill it scatter a spade full of earth soil on top as an activator and piss on it.