Totally hopeless gardener with new beautiful garden

[EnglishRose1320]

As the title says I am both hopeless and have moved to a house with beautiful gardens, mature flowerbeds and I feel totally overwhelmed. Any suggestions for books, websites, youtubers who could help me navigate the basics of not totally killing this lovely space.
Thanks

What about this? www.rhs.org.uk/advice/beginners-guide

Feel free to PM me with more specific questions if you like. I'm a lifelong gardener, and studying a related degree

I really like the RHS gardening through the year book (fellow hopeless gardener). The best thing to do is try to identify what you can and watch the garden through the year for more surprises. We had snow drops and crocus springing up in our grass 8 months after we moved in. I was glad I'd persuaded DH that we didn't need to replace the (admittedly lumpy) lawn with turf or we would have missed it. It was so lovely having flowers in the garden when the weather was still miserable.

Another vote for the RHS.

How big is your garden? I’m guessing quite big. The Middle Sized Garden is a great YouTube channel and she has a blog too.

I would also say that you need to watch it for a whole year, and keep a diary /note of what comes up in each bed.

If you can identify each plant, then Google when to prune, deadhead, feed etc you'll be most of the way there.

Google Lens is a very simple app for identifying plants. I'm sure you can get fancier ones, but I find it very easy.

I then flit between the RHS website and Gardener's World website if I want to check what to do (I'm fairly new to this too).

Do you have a map/plan of the garden? If not, start there: measure out the space (roughly – think really good Mumsnet diagram, not architectural drawing), draw in the plants – big circles – and label what you can identify.

Get a plant app on your phone and use it to identify what you couldn’t.

That way when stuff dies back over autumn/winter (if it’s perennial), you’ll know what it is when it starts coming back in spring. Plus you can make a big list of it all and start making notes on each for watering, pruning, training, fertilising, deadheading, blah blah.

Plus start watching gardening programmes, Monty, Carol ,Arit, Joe and the rest, as long as it’s a programme where they concentrate on the plants not too much on the hard and soft landscaping......... I know that’s important but the OP sounds as though her garden has its bones, and anyway,I like finding out about plants!

Join Instagram and follow other people whose garden style you like - you’ll learn a lot of plant names along the way by osmosis

I can highly recommend the website and YouTube channel for Charles dowding and no dig principles - applicable for flowers and plants as well as vegetables.

charlesdowding.co.uk/sowing-timeline-for-vegetables/

If you have specific plants and want to learn about pruning etc then I'd google pruning and care for the specific plant to get a better picture of what to do for each one

A subscription to Gardeners World Magazine can be worthwhile too- there's a section telling you what to do each month, and lots of basics. My mum got me a subscription when we moved in, and it's been really useful.

Lots of people are getting rid of books these days so you could see what your local charity shops have to offer in the way of gardening books. They may be old but the basics don't change much.
Or look in the library.

a house with beautiful gardens, mature flowerbeds and I feel totally overwhelmed
There was a similar thread recently. The consensus seemed to be that it was a fool's errand to try to preserve somebody else's garden. Make it your own! As others have said, bide your time, get to know your garden through the seasons and then put your own stamp on it.

Ooh thank you so much for all the lovely advice. Going to check out the thread, web sites and you Tubers.

Love the idea of making a map/plan, will have a go this evening once dinner and bedtimes are out the way.

I'd say it was a medium sized garden, bigger than our patch of just lawn in our first home but not gigantic. Plus a front garden as well- which although smaller possibly terrifies me more- I feel the pressure to keep up with the neighbours, they all have beautifully kept front gardens and clearly know what they are doing!

If you can afford it, hire a gardener for a couple of hours a week but one who will help you learn how to take care of what’s in your garden and what to do when. Then after a year you’ll know what’s what and you can make it more your own.

On YouTube - ‘The Middle Sized Garden’, ‘Homegrown.Garden’ and ‘Gardening at 58 North’

I feel the pressure to keep up with the neighbours, they all have beautifully kept front gardens and clearly know what they are doing!

Talk to your neighbours and ask their advice; gardeners are generally a pretty friendly lot.