To wish I didn't have a garden

[Wildernessgarden]

I know I am and just need reminding that I should be grateful. But my stomach lurches just looking out the window. Not sure I'll ever get it sorted.

I hate gardening and I don't know where to start. It's like a jungle. There is barely any lawn left, few patches of grass, mostly 2 foot high weeds. Huge out of control trees, overgrown hedges and some crazy vine that covers every thing. Several broken fence panels. Random raised bits. The concrete paths are cracked and mossy. Rotting falling apart sheds. Front and back.

Oh and hedgehogs have declined massively in recent years - there aren't too many about now - so as and when you get around to sorting the fence make sure to leave/ cut a hedgehog hole (Google it for dimensions, I think slightly bigger than you might imagine given the size of a hedgehog) so that they can get between gardens - their habitat has shrunk so much with all these pristine, fenced-off gardens!

Nice for the kids to be able to see if you can get some hedgehogs in the garden too.

How are you getting on OP?

My MIL advised me to do 10 mins every day. That's all. No more is allowed.

It works, slowly. It take the pressure off because you can't achieve much in 10 mins but over a month or so you'll see results.

10 mins pulling weeds
10 mins scattering weed and feed
10 mins pruning.

It's not overwhelming as you can't plan anything big.

OPyou can just pull up the bindweed by hand, you'll get the hang of it, it'll be your main job for the next few years :-)
Designate yourself as a wildlife garden for the next couple of years - fortnightly mowing max, keep on top of bindweed, don't worry about the lovely trees, chuck some wildflower seed and get some potted lavender for around the patio. You could also chuck down some herbs on the patio itself, to seed in the cracks. Chamomile, thyme, things like that.
Then let the garden do it's own thing, don't worry too much, every space is different and the more green the better x

Pulling up bindweed is so satisfying OP. It takes over everything and is relentless but it does come up pretty easily and makes a difference in a short amount of time. You do need to keep on top of it though, a few minutes weekly will do it.

Just leave it. Let it go to jungle.

I have a detached house with a not that big a garden (is 1/4 acre big?). I hate gardening with a vengeance. I have trees: Oak, ash, willows, sitka, goat-willow, birch,a couple of others that I should know the names of but don't - loads of feral blackcurrents which yield huge crops despite being utterly neglected, and lots and lots of interesting weeds. And I got wildlife. Toads, frogs, and newts, Lots of birds: a nestbox I forgot to clear out last winter after the blue tits moved on is now occupied with a hive of bumblebees, deer regularly wander through. I watched a pine martin exploring the roof of one of the outhouses for ages earlier this year - I think it had managed to get itself stuck up there after the branch it had used to get up there had sprung up out of its reach once it had got off. It eventually worked out how to get down.

The shrubs and bushes grow right up to the windows and honeysuckle has actually worked its way through one window and come indoors, up the inside of the house. It now has its roots outside but flowers in my daughter's first floor bedroom window. We trimmed it back when it escaped through her Velux back outside onto the roof.

Jungles are fun. My 10 year old son loves it. So do his pals.

My MIL advised me to do 10 mins every day. That's all. No more is allowed.
Love this advice. I’m going to apply it to my own garden which I hate and also others areas of life.

I finally made a start. Had a really busy week followed by a very lazy day yesterday but no work for a week now and should have lots of time. Probably only working on it for about 45 minutes today as was interspersed with playing with youngest, but pulled up loads. It's crazy stuff, able to pull up huge armfuls of it.

By the end of the week I think I'll work on one small section at a time.

Thanks for all the posts.

Well done OP, you are on your way!

Well done O/P. The hardest part really is getting going. You've had some great advice on this thread.

I find gardening really therapeutic, so maybe you'll find the more you spend out there the more it grows on you (see what I did there, haha). I have a giant garden, and it is mostly my full time job but I really struggle to get out there somedays