sharon wrote:
stuart noble wrote:
sharon wrote:
Hi

I'm moving into a new place next month and it's got a garden )

It's only a small lawn with a couple of borders, no more than 30 ft
square, but up till now I've only ever lived in flats so it's my first
garden...

Basically, what should I do with the border? I was thinking of planting
up some bulbs for next spring then putting some bedding plants in next
summer... but I don't want to dig up the bulbs after they flower if
they'll come back every year like daffodils. So should I plant the
bulbs in the back half of the border and put the bedding plants in the
front?

Sorry I'm completely clueless
I've noticed over the years that experienced gardeners are always moving
things about if they don't look right, or aren't happy in a certain
location, but they invariably have a good soil structure which allows
them to do that without damaging the roots. So, I'd attend to the basics
before I planted anything in the borders. Shouldn't be too arduous in
your case.

Thanks for the reply, didn't understand a word of that though stu

What are the "basics" I should attend to?

Well, you might be lucky and have the perfect dark, crumbly soil. Then
again, you might have a sandy soil that holds no water, or a clay soil
that gets waterlogged and you can barely get a fork into. With a small
area like yours you can afford to dig down to a spade depth in the
borders, either just to aerate the soil if it's good, or modify it by
adding compost etc if it ain't. This sort of work is never wasted but it
can only be done before you start populating it with exotic shrubs and
stuff :-)