Simple Gardening Advice

If you are starting small and you are still experimenting, limit yourself to just a few plants.

If you intend to grow vegetables, a good start will be with those vegetables that are best freshly picked, i.e. lettuce, spring onions, French beans and radishes. These are easy to grow, less time consuming and do not need to be transplanted when maturing.

Flower gardens can be more difficult to create. But if you want that, you should start with your favourite colours. A beautiful photograph from a magazine can be a start, but it would be more efficient to look what your neighbours are growing and what are their results. They can even advise you and help you with your plants.

Before you start, some good advice would be to take a walk around some garden centres and look for plant labels for those that you like. Try to find a combination of 3 to 5 plants that you really like.

Be sure that all your plants have similar requirements such as sun, water, pH and they don't ask more that you can provide.

Stay low with the types of your plants; it is a good composition to have more plants of the same variety than to have a much diversified garden.

For more info, try www.garden.ie.

What will you get from your garden

If you are looking to grow a specific plant, check first for growing conditions. Vegetables require at least six hours of light exposure. That is available also for flowers, but you can also choose plants that can grow in a shaded site. You can start a garden in a shaded place, but your choices for plants will be more limited.

Pay attention when you have sun at your site because many plants turn their faces towards the sun.

There are other aspects to be considered such as views, garden layout, wind, drainage, plant selection, garden style and more. The smartest way to solve is to put all this information down on paper. Using this process as a starting point in the design of your garden may take a little time but the end result will be visible.

Once you know where you'd like to try your first garden, use a hose or extension cord to try laying it out on the ground. Within a few months, the garden will become an oasis for you and your family.

Buying and choosing the right garden furniture

Be sure the garden furniture you choose will last and parts will be available when you need them.

Decide what works for you; buying furniture for your garden is simply a combination of your wants and needs.

Keep budget in mind, but shop for value over price. Defective materials, complicated assemblies and delivery difficulties can be costly on a longer term.

Try before you buy; check out the styles you like to be sure you'll be comfortable in them. Sit on benches, try to relax on the chaise lounge and pull chairs up to their table to make sure you'll be comfortable all summer long.

For more info on garden furniture to design visit our Garden and Outdoors section.