We have quite a big (North facing) garden (never measured but prob about 30ft wide by 100ft long). The people who lived here before had it properly done by a gardener, who regularly maintained it (has apparently since died, so not an option). It has lots of shrubs, and things come up at different times, different colours - obviously professionally done.
DH can't be bothered to do anything out there and I haven't a clue, plus I really don't have the time. My mum would come over but tends to be of the if-it's-sticking-out-hack-it-off school of gardening 
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I've realised today that after almost 3 years of neglect I'm going to have to get someone in to sort it out. BUT I want someone who knows what they are doing, not a builder with some spare time.
How long would it take a proper gardener to prune and sort out an overgrown garden? And how often would it need to be maintained? I don't want to advertise and find I'm looking at paying somebody full time wages for a month to sort it. For maintenance am I looking at an hour a week, an afternoon a month, a day a fortnight...? It has 3 lawns, terraced, flowerbed down one side and in a circle in the middle, and tall bushes all the way down both sides and across the bottom.
As you can see I'm totally clueless, so can people who know what they are talking about give me some pointers please.