Nick Bailey on making a new garden

A well maintained green sward with stripes from a lawnmower is the epitome of a British garden. It could be something to do with the amount of rain we get but it also depends on the type and care of the grass.

It is possible to enjoy gardening without having a traditional garden. Budding new gardeners can get a lot of pleasure and experience from a simple approach to plants and growing.

There are many interesting terms that may have uses in our UK gardening. We  have probably all experimented with Bonsai aiming for the perfection of small trees in small pots as a demonstration of bonsiers art. I have used the root restriction technique to get miniature or smaller shrubs for a smaller garden but stopping short of root pruning.

There are several annual plants I would recommend to new gardeners who want to cover an unsightly mess but do not want permanent plants that could impede house maintenance.

One of the easiest and highest yielding vegetable crops to grow are runner beans. You may not need all these 5 tips to do well but here goes:

Kids can have fun in the garden and on a windowsill. It can give them an understanding of food and green issues in a fun environment. Help them grow plants that are easy, reliable and develop quickly to maintain interest. Give them good soil, a sunny location and help so they are not put off  gardening in the future. Kids can be turned into enthusiastic gardeners from an early age and with luck it will stay with them for life

December was a time for reflection on past performance in my Yorkshire garden. I keep old note books and reprise the failures of earlier seasons and as I discover I also repeat many mistakes the following year. That’s gardening for you.

There is a whole new language to be embraced when you first start to garden. We have just selected 5 gardening terms that you may come across.

New gardeners are keen to get going and it may be painful to wait for several months to grow your own from seed or cuttings. Fortunately there are several ways to shortcut the process by buying starter plants.

In this series of ‘fives for New Gardeners’ I have limited the number of photographs I have included but I am proud that I grew this African Violet from a leaf rooted in water. Gardening includes a bit of pride so I am happy enough for now.

A colony of Foxgloves not a skulk or earth as in Foxes

Some plants give double pleasure by producing berries after their flowers have already performed. Here is my top 5: