Shrub removal

[OhWifey]

Our garden is very mature and rich in shrubbery and small trees round the borders. The borders at the back are 2m deep. We bought from a retired couple who kept it looking beautiful. We just can't keep on top of it with 2 small children, one with additional needs and husband works long hours. Am considering removing all the shrubs, keeping the trees and having gravel borders that I can just keep pots on. Is it even possible to successfully uproot a garden full of shrubs. Will it be incredibly expensive? Would save a fortune in me paying gardeners to come every couple of weeks just to keep it cut back. Will also give us much more usable space. Grateful for any advice.

Do the gardeners really need to come every two weeks to cut back the shrubs? None of mine grow that fast.
I would urge you to think very carefully about uprooting all your shrubs. Gravel is a bit unrelenting and would need to be weeded, even with weed suppressant underneath. (And it may become the local WC of choice for the local cat population.). You would need to keep on top of watering all the pots if you went down that route, and find a kind neighbour to do it while you are away - or install an automatic watering system. The cost of uprooting all your shrubs and taking them away would probably pay a local handyman to keep your garden looking beautiful for a fair while.

Thank you that's really helpful re things to think about. I know nothing about gardening and while I'm keen to learn it'll be a few years before I have the opportunity. The gardeners don't do it all at once; they're like hens teeth round here so they'll come for a few hours and just do the front or part of the back.

With failing health I made the decision to revamp my Garden. I would take your time and start with the shrubs that are the hardest work and the ones that look the ugliest. Despite having the same garden for nearly 40 years it was relatively easy to lift the shrubs. I actuallly got rid of mine on Freecycle and “Freely Wheelie”. people were queuing up to take them away. It was really lovely to chat to new gardeners who were happy toreceive free plans. It was the best thing I ever did.

Once you have pared it back to what you want, lay down a very good quality membraine and then top with gravel or bark. It is always hard to stop cats messing, but I have found they are less likely to do it on the Bark than the gravel.