A question for all the gardners out there

Hi I have a question for all those with gardening knowledge.
I am finally planning to put some plants in my garden - I am going to start with the front and would like either a small tree in a tub or a climbing plant. It is south facing so it gets the heat of the sun ( on the rare occasion that happens in Scotland ) but it is also exposed in winter.

So what do you recommend - a small tree in a tub or climbing plant and which type would suit?
I want to start feeding the birds and feel the front of my garden would be safer because the way my house is designed the cats only go out the back. I was hoping the tree or shrub would provide some where for the birds to sit on.

I really need help because I have never done any gardening before

Emm a great place to check out is crocus.co.uk

It gives you great plant advice and tells you what plants where, which plants are toxic to dogs/cats etc and what plants grow best in a particular type of soil.

I'm pretty new to this gardening hobby and was advised the first thing to do was to find out what type of soil you have - you can get a ph testing kit for around £1 from most good garden centres.

Also a good thing to think about is planning your planting on which seasons they flower so you can get all year round colour in different areas of the garden.

Also what style you like, whether it is country cottage, urban style, sunny siesta styling, french romance

Our garden is east facing - so it gives us a real mixture of sun and shade. We're going for architecural type of plants - choosing black bamboo to give us privacy and to help create a barrier from the noise our neighbours generate (it's fine in the sun but needs daily watering if it doesn't rain), we are also planting Elymus grass which gives off a lovely light blue colour, and are about to order a acer japanese maple tree with a lovely rich orange red colour in autumn. We are also wanting to plant a climber - there is a lovely exotic climber called Blue Passion Flower.

Another thing we did was stick our nose over our neighbours garden - she has such a lovely garden and we could see what was thriving in her garden - and knew it would do likewise with ours

She was very kind and actually bought us a book called Perfect Plant Perfect Place by Roy Lancaster - it's really really good!!

If you ever need anything checked out just PM me I'm happy to look it up for you in the book.

Have fun - it's quite addictive

well Emm
I think you should just buy the shrub or tree and get advice from the garden centre you buy from,Thats what I did and they grew,

Most things will grow once you follow the instructions and its the right time of the year

Emm when you say climbing is it up against a wall? If so one of the small leafed COTONEASTERS like Horizontalis with the herringbone leaves and berries for the birds is good shrub and will grow anywhere, in a tub what about a bay tree, nice to look at and good for the leaves, or an Acer Palmatum maybe crimson queen with pretty leaves, there are so many to choose from ..there is one spectacular tree with weeping branches that look like flowers but I can't remember the name..will go and look in the daylight

thanks! I'll go and check out the website - I'm going to be planting in tubs so I don't think the soil will matter because I'll just buy the right sort for the plants that I choose (if thats possible?) - we have a massive slug population here so no plants would survive them in the ground - and I can't kill any animal

I like the sound of the bamboo and I love the Japenese maple trees they are beautiful.

my problem is I don't know what style I want I like them all

hi mari thanks for the reply - my local garden centres are really terrible there isn't much choice and what is there is in really bad condition so I think I will have to buy from mail order to get a good choice and hopefully good quality!

yes the plant would be for climbing up a wall.
the tree with weeping branches sounds very interesting will it grow in a tub alright?

Hi Emm, have you thought about climbing roses? They`re lovely

David Austin does the best with a huge variety for all different kinds of situations & are superb with mail order, look under choosing roses & cultivation

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/

Emm I have just ordered an acer palmatum from ebay It's cheaper than crocus (although Crocus is brilliant ) and every where else I have looked £11.91 + delivery which was £3 something - they still have some more left, if you want the link I can PM you with it

ooh that would be great if you could maplecottage - thanks!