Thoughts for starting a garden at this time of year, please

Regarding the wildflower area, it depends on whether you want an annual wildflower patch that needs re-sowing every year, or perennial wildflowers that can be left, more or less, to get on with it. You can buy seed mixes for both. The annual ones are very pretty but both have benefits for wildlife.

It’s also worth seeing what plants grow in the wild locally as they will be adapted to your soil and weather conditions. Then you can find the garden varieties of those plants and know they should like it in your garden.

You can get garden design apps to check your layout and design which will show how it looks when mature.

I am a volunteer at an NT kitchen garden and one of the main things I have learned is that the soil is the most important aspect of a successful garden. You get out of the ground what you put in. If that makes sense! I have spent years trying to grow stuff in my garden where the soil is really poor and only get half hearted results. This autumn I will be piling on the manure etc. As someone up thread mentioned though, this doesn’t apply to wildflower gardens.

Be aware of plants / shrubs that need a lot of water. I’m thinking Hydrangeas. Mine suffered this year.

Jaxjacky and Baggs are right. There's no point in planting shrubs that don't like your soil. Also, it may start conversations with your neighbours, which is a good thing in itself. As others have said, gardeners are, generally, a helpful and generous group of people.

What jaxjacky said about having a look around nearby to see what grows successfully in the local soil ?

As well as others excellent advice it’s worth seeing what your neighbours grow successfully, I assume the ground is similar, it’s a good opportunity for a chat too. I’d also invest in another water butt, think I can see one round the side of the house.

Sorry I’ve repeated some previous comments! Us gardeners are so keen to help!????

What fun! It’s a lovely project starting a new garden. As others have said, improve the soil now, while you’ve a bare patch and monitor the sun movement around the garden.
Also, Autumn is the best time to plant shrubs and plan for where the cottage annual will go in the Spring.
I’d draw a measured plan of the flower bed, just to give you an idea of where things might go. You might think about using the fence for climber or espalier fruit trees.
Now is a good time to go to nurseries and garden centres, as they begin to sell plants off cheaply, they don’t want to overwinter them. Especially if you want some larger specimen plants. How about a pergola to give height?
Now is also a good time to plant spring bulbs, that will give you colour early in the year.
Have a look at Pinterest’s small garden suggestions, it’s often a good place to give visual inspiration.

You really should determine what type of soil you have, and which direction your garden faces as these two factors will have an impact on what plants and shrubs grow best in your garden. Some plants like full sun, some like dappled light and others like a cooler, damper location. You don't mention where you are geographically, a plant that. grows well in the milder temperatures southern UK might not be suitable for growing in the far northern locations.
Oops is correct, spring bulbs can go in now and I would be tempted to visit a local garden centre for advice on what is suitable for your location too.
Above all, enjoy your new project, there's no better feeling than watching something grow and flourish in our gardens. Have fun.

Usually Autumn is a very good time to plant, but our plants don’t like our hard chalky tap water, so we would need the rain to water the plants in.

You could start to plant bulbs though ready for next year.

Pinterest has plenty of ideas for small gardens, just type in Cottage Gardens U.K.

I'm utterly hopeless at planning plantings, so can't help you there, but 2 things:

If you're planning to sow wild flowers don't 'improve' the soil where you plan to have them because they prefer poor soil. And you can probably sow seed now, because that's what happens in the wild.

It's fine to plant shrubs and perennials now, the soil is still warm and they'll have time to get established before winter. But, they'll need to be kept well watered to establish them, so if water is short in your area you might find that a problem. You can use 'grey' water though if you can collect and store it.

As your garden has been covered with paving slabs for some time the areas you don't use for wild flowers will need a good dose of organic matter. Garden compost, well rotted stable manure and the like. A good covering in the autumn will be taken into the soil by worms over the winter, no need to dig it in.

Enjoy your garden