Large garden - weed control

[Mammyofonlyone]

I'm in need of advice. We bought a house with a large garden at the back that needs work. At present it is basically a large rectangle with trees at the bottom and shrubs around the edges. In terms of planting it is fine albeit uninspired.
The trouble is we are rural so have loads of weeds that grow amazingly quickly between the various shrubs that look really untidy. Some of them can grow as tall as me for context!
In the past I've weeded as much as I can but they grow back so quickly and without dedicating my life to weeding I'd never be able to keep on top of them. We've mulched a tree and spread the bark over the beds. It the weeds are breaking through again really easily despite a thick layer.
I was wondering about maybe planting some ground covering plants in the gaps and under the trees - does anyone have any suggestions as to what plants would be good for this? Or any other methods of weed control?

Ground cover ftw!

I am very fond of ajuga (Bugle) (You have just missed it's flowering). Lots of varieties, but mine is close to the wildflower variety (I bought a pretty variegated one which the slugs wolfed). Dark purplish leaves, spikes of punk or purple flowers, fab for bees. Fine with shade.

Arabis old gold is a sunnier spreader, nice variegated leaves and a cloud of early spring white blooms on stalks.

Creeping thyme is popular here, there are a gazillion cranesbill geraniums to suit as well.

Oh thank you Bert, will see if I can see them at the nursery, that type of thing is just what I was thinking of

Thanks geek. We've got loads of mulch left so I'll put out some weeds again and apply more!

Or any other methods of weed control?

you could dig out the weeds when you see them? Hoe them off as they start to grow?Put a deeper mulch on them

the trick is to identify annual weeds and hoe them, but with perennials you need to get the roots out. You will never get them all out. Using a fork, dig it in [poke] and wiggle it and remove the fork. Then poke an inch away from where you dug last time and wiggle it. Keep going until all the soil is loose, and pull out the perennial weed. If it doesn't come out, then you need to poke and wiggle a few more times. the more time you spend removing perennial weeds when they are small the easier life is.

For inbetween shrubs, you don't always need ground cover, smaller shrubs, annual flowers, herbs etc are all good for filling in the gaps. Just go buy some stuff you like the look of and pop it in. I have mixed border so inbetween shrubs I have small trees, i pop veg in, I have strawberries and some perennial herbs. Plus grasses, with self seeding wildflowers eg violets.

I wonder if you might have to put a weed membrane down first. You can cut holes in it to put plants in and then cover with bark. This would help long term but be a bigger job to start with.

Thanks geek, useful advice. I think I'm going to need a lot of bin bags!!

Could you have a weekly gardener for a couple of hours?

I wish Molly but a couple of hours wouldn't come close, plus I don't work so I don't think I can justify it!

So go out and weed for 30 mins every day?

That would let really fit with my other commitments City. Plus I have spent a lot of time and money on planting and maintaining the other garden since we moved in as it is a bit smaller and therefore more manageable so that is where I'm investing the majority of my effort