On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 21:47:51 -0000, " Gavsta" wrote:

Hi,

I moved into my new house last year, and although the front garden is
landscaped by the developers they simply leave the back garden with a rough
layer of top soil and nothin else.

[snip]
Basically I would love to hear any ideas to reasonably quickly get the
garden looking nice and what you guys recommend.

Another refugee from ukrm!!

It would help to say you're in the Isle of Man as that will inform the
gang here about likely weather conditions - wet and windy - and that
will be a guide to the plants. Also are you very close to the sea as
salt in the air will also affect the plants that are best to grow?

I am in pretty much the same situation as you in terms of starting a
garden although I have some inheritance from previous owners. I still
haven't a full idea as to what I would like. I have watched plenty of
garden programmes to at least get some idea about plants, bought some
books, looked in peoples' gardens to see if there is anything I like,
visited the Hampton Court flower show and also visited some local open
days for the National Garden Scheme. I also photographed those gardens
and the plants I particularly liked. Oh and I popped down to Columbia
Road Market on a Sunday morning which was great fun. I'm a bit spoilt
having some of those resources to hand but I am remote from decent
nurseries and don't have a car to lug bags of compost and lots of
plants.

I now feel I have some "building blocks" of knowledge and need to sit
down and work out what I would like to try and then attempt to make a
plan. Then comes the implementation phase.

I think the general advice would be do some research but don't take too
long, think about what you'd like to use the garden for, work out how
the sun passes over the garden (full sun, partial shade, nearly all
shady) and the draw up a plan. As has already been said you won't really
achieve an instant garden in one growing season - it'll take about 3
years for decent growth to work its way through. Have fun.
--
Paul C