Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Don't forget (most) turf is evil and full of plastic mesh which you will be forever digging up when you plant something in a new hole or something.

turf is evil and full of plastic mesh

Didn't know that! Have only ever used grass seed and got rid of lawn a few years ago in any case.

The stuff I got last time from these wasn't
https://thompsonsofcrewshill.com/

I bought a load of turf a year or two back and it had no netting. Probably if you get it from B&Q etc then it might be but a good local supplier should be fine, you can search plastic-free turf if you need to find a supplier.

re-lay it or oversow ... rotavate ... re-sow/relay ... mattock

It is some measure of my ignorance that I don't (currently!) know what any of these words mean, but I think this is exactly what I needed - what the options are and how I could achieve them in the short and long term. I'm going to spend the weekend googling this - thank you.

Also my wife is talking about installing a clover lawn in the spring rather than a standard issue grass one, to encourage bees and give us a bit of a break from maintenance - is that a sensible thing to do? I know it's invasive and our flowerbeds aren't separated from the lawn, so I'm a bit nervous!

Clover is great but needs some time to get established so if the lawn gets heavy footfall then it might struggle. You could maybe oversow the grass that's already there with it if you want to try it.

Re-lay - buy turf and lay it down. Quicker and more expensive than seed.
Rotavate - A rotavator is like a motorised hand plough that will dig up and loosen all your lawn so you can rake it level.
Sow - Grow the lawn from seed. Cheaper but takes time.
Mattock - hand tool for digging like a wide pick axe.
Oversow - Putting seed on the lawn that's already there.

With the oversow option I was thinking you could level out some of the lumps with a mattock/stiff rake and then sow the patches with seed.

When we moved in last September I cut down the masses of Bramble that were taking over the rear of the garden. I kept on top of it but left two patches to grow with the hope of getting some fruit this year but had nothing, one of them is now massive. I’d like to cut this back, but only if it will fruit next year, should I take it down to 50%? Sack it off?

Get rid, plant something nice and find a local hedgerow to pick brambles...

We'd like some winter colour for our beds. Any recommendations on what to look out for at the garden centre?

Hmmm. I have an apple tree though, so it feels like I’m missing out on super-easy crumble options if I have to go scrumping.

Some people plant mahonia. Not my fave plant though.

Wild blackberry bushes won't be as productive as garden varieties and wildlife will often get to the berries before you do

Hellebore.

They're happy to be covered by other plants in summer which means you can plant all around them.

Other option is to look for those plants with red winter stems and grasses that look interesting in winter.

Went to Surrey Docks Farm and collected 10 sacks of well rotted manure this morning.
I've got a whole lot of muscari, tulip and allium bulbs that need to go in but nowhere to put them. Plan is to dig up some more of the grass of the front lawn. Need to dig a really deep hole, sieve our all the inevitable war rubble, stones, glass, pottery etc, dump the manure in then put the original soil back on top and the bulbs in that. Worms should move it all about. At least the clay shoukd be nice and sticky and moist given all the recent rain. Job to start tomorrow morning.

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Theres a nicer mahonia that's not spiky called soft caress, mahonia is great for bees over winter. Other options are cornus for stem colour, pyracantha for bright berries that the birds like, hellebores, sweet box, witchazel, Daphne and yellow jasmine

muscari will probably take root on those paving slabs - manure might turn them into trees!

sweet box

Gorgeous scent.

Cheers all. We got some hellebore, pansies and something else I can't remember. Plus a load of bulbs to plant at some point.

We've got a Mahonia 'soft caress' which has finally got its roots down having been put in a spot which is way too sunny but was protected this year by a couple of dahlias. Can't wait for other stuff to die back because I can see it's full of yellow flower. Would recommend.

So I dug the manure in last weekend and got the bulbs in this morning. Sticky clay everywhere. Was absolutely knackered by the end of it. Everything was so waterlogged that it had about an inch of clay sticking to it making the spade and shoes super heavy. Filled 3/4 of a 50l Selco rubble sack with broken quarry tiles, stones, bricks and general rubble. Hadn't heard of a dibber before speaking with a horticulturaly astute colleague but purchased one on his reccomendation and it made the plating a breeze. Get yourself one if you don't have one or get those that you love a nice one for Christmas.
I'd like to think I've now put the effort in now and the patch will look incredible come spring however, in reality, the squirrels will probably make off with most of the bulbs. 😭
Looks like I've actually been digging a grave.

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Ouch...been there, done that, including rubbles and other crap buried in the clay.

And I have a squirrel too digging up bulbs...not scared at all looks me in the eye while digging out the garden.

Wire mesh can keep the bulbs safe and on the upside: Clay is very fertile! Everything grows so, so well. After the backbreaking work... :)

Adding dibber to Christmas list :)

Today, weeding and adding woodchip at the local herb garden.

At home moving plants, rip one heuchera unless repotted roots respawn, starting hoeing out overgrown buttercup patch for planting.

Btw chatgpt can help with plant info, start with "give my plants like... For soil like...." then continue with "keep that but swap those" or "from that list give me slug proof only" etc.

I doing you get rare plants but to get started or eke out plant info it's not bad.

It can't create visual plans looking into that, but so far not been able to "ai" that.

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I didn't bother digging manure in with our front garden, just laid it on thick and covered it in shingle. Everything seems happy enough with it.
Harvested our Sichuan peppers today

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Still plenty of colour around

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Bulb planters are good too. Either the handheld ones for small jobs or if you're planting 200 daffodils into a lawn get one of the ones on a pole you can step on.

Nothing looks like that here near Carlisle, heavy frost this morning (not the first) and currently about 1 degrees. Dahlias dug up a few weeks ago lol