Help!! I'm feeling overwhelmed

[GrannyMW50]

I'm not a fan of gardening.
Over the years, my partner has been the one to do it. He's planted fruit trees, raspberry canes & that sort of thing. He's not been in the best health over recent years & the garden had became really overgrown with things he'd planted..plus extras that had planted themselves!! I cut some of it back last year & again this year, after it completely took over the whole space, but then decided to just clear it all. I've had everything cut down & I'm having the stumps ground down this week. I feel really bad about losing all the nature (there were no nests or anything) that used to visit. 😞
It's all uneven, dried out & full of roots.

My garden isn't actually very big (but looks much bigger than it did last week!). Does anyone have any advice as to how I can get it into some kind of useable state without having to get someone in. I'll already have spent quite a bit...& still need to get quotes for a new fence.
I'm thinking, eventually, of having planters, a small wood pile, bird feeders, a clover lawn & a small area of wild flowers.

Any advice is much appreciated 🙏

Stop. If your garden is as dry as it is in most of the country, you can't really do anything at all until we've had a good few days of rain. You may need to wait a while!

Maybe spend the time looking at a few garden design books from the local library to get some ideas and plan something easy care and low-maintenance for the future. It doesn't all have to be done at once; as long as you have some sort of idea in your mind of what you eventually want, you can do one section at a time and just keep the rest of it clear of weeds while you make your way round. Many gardens take years to develop, it isn't at all like decorating a room or those tv programmes where the whole thing can be done in a few days.

The three things you have listed here are all of them, things that people think are low maintenance but are usually completely the opposite.

If you have a garden with a lawn and some flowers in it then you will get wildlife visiting it.

Do you have a lawn atm? If so I would just leave it to do it’s thing. We cut ours fairly regularly and the weeds and clover bounce back in no time.

You would be better off with a flower bed with a variety of flowering perennial plants in it than pots - although by all means have some pots as well. You could plant some up with tulips and other bulbs now.

There’s loads of wonderful garden advice on YouTube (just Google low maintenance garden), spend the autumn and winter clearing ready for spring.

By the way, clover lawns (or chamomile, or anything else that isn't grass) are a pain in the whatsit. You have to get down on your hands and knees and weed them by hand.

You've removed mature trees and shrubs?
To replace with lawns and planters?
And you want low maintenance?
This is deeply frustrating.

Hello Granny. I am a gardener and run my own small gardening business.
My advice to you would be to get on your local social media page and ask for advice from local gardeners.

Gardeners are generally really kind helpful people who love gardens, nature and making our outside spaces better for wildlife and people.

You don't want a landscaper or a big company. You don't want a handyman who also jet washes and does flat packs. What you want is a little one woman practice. A proper gardener who knows the soil and plants. A friendly soul who can come along and advise you. If you contacted me on this basis I would come to your garden, talk to you about what you want and give you a ton of ideas. I wouldn't charge you for that.

When you've met your gardener you can decide whether to ask her to do some work for you, or you can have a go yourself.

I charge £25 an hour and, not being rude or big headed, I would do more in an hour than you'll do in four. I would save you wasting money on the wrong plants that won't work in your garden and I would leave you with a garden to suit your needs/motivation that will work for you. A bit of money invested now will pay dividends I promise.

As one last aside. If you'd got me in before you started work I could have rationalised the garden you have. Got the existing plants in check, added some more and some wildlife features. It would probably have cost you a fraction of what you're paying your slash and burn stump grinder people AND you'd be left with a well established, tidy, wildlife friendly garden. You'd probably have paid me the £50 or so I'd charge you to come back in autumn and spring to give your garden a seasonal tidy and once over.

If you don't want to pay a gardener - how about contacting your local horticultural college or club. Someone there might well enjoy helping you plan out a garden in exchange for a cuppa and a slice of cake.

Believe me, I feel like I am actually grieving for them.

The 3 that were in a place where they could have stayed were too big (in width) for my small garden..& have broken the fence. I couldn't have replaced the fencing with them in place & they were impeding a public footpath. One had tipped & continued growing sideways. All the others were just scattered around, making the garden unusable, or too close to a neighbour's property so the roots were in danger of affecting the building.
It wasn't just done for maintenance reasons

Thank you so much. This is very useful 🙏

This has made me feel a bit better. Thank you 😀

Large established trees and shrubs will often grow back from a stump if you liked them but they were too big.

Thank you for your replies. They've all given me things to think about. Especially knowing things I thought would be low maintenance actually wouldn't be.
Just out of curiosity, I've been out to count the stumps. There are 14. 6 of them being quite large trees. My garden is 20ft X 30ft!!
3 were there when we moved in, my partner planted 3 or 4 (2 of them had been in planters but had managed to grow roots into the ground, therefore getting bigger than intended...they were the ones a possible risk to my neighbour's property).

Yes, this. Hopefully at least 1 / 2 of them will grow back and you can have managed woodland...

Do you know what the trees / shrubs were? We might be able to help with advice... then you can have the stump grinder leave 1 / 2 alone?

2 or 3 elder, 2 fig...never got an edible fig from them (they were the ones that escaped from tubs!), 1 had been a plum tree..but partner thinks it had changed into whatever it had been grafted from.
The elder are the ones I'm saddest about.

Just reading about maintaining elders 🤞

I have two elders in my own garden and every few years I cut one or the other of them to the ground and they grow back beautifully turning into really decent shrubs over one growing season. They're very easy to maintain in this way and wildlife (birds and small mammals) love them. If you have elder stumps in place perhaps consider keeping at least one of those and you'll have some structure back in your garden very soon.

Your tree crowded garden is probably the reason you never saw a fig. Lack of sunlight is the main cause for failure to fruit in figs so if they were shaded by other plants that's most likely the reason - that and competing for nutrients and water with so many other trees.

If you're having new fences and are really keen on wildlife you (or your fencing people) could put a hedgehog gate or two in. Info about that here https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/

Just a thought Granny, but if you posted up a photo of your garden now and an indication of which way it faces and whereabouts you are in the world we might be able to make some more suggestions to help you.

Stop. If your garden is as dry as it is in most of the country, you can't really do anything at all until we've had a good few days of rain. You may need to wait a while!

This ! ^

Managed woodland in a garden 20 feet x 30 feet? Probably not!😁

OP - don't bother with planters, they need regular maintenance and if we start getting more summers like this one, watering will quickly become an onerous task.

I think I've decided to keep an elder.
I was definitely planning on having hedgehog holes in the fencing. That's partially who the wood pile is going to be for 🤞

Was trying to rebrand what OP did... Chopping down a mature tree could be coppicing no?

Glad you're going to keep a few elders... Ours seem to have done OK in the drought this year and the flowers and berries great for wildlife ( and drinks 🍸 )