How to go about rennovating garden

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Hi there,
First time poster - long time reader. Desperately looking for some help!

I have recently bought a property with a small city garden. I've spent some time now renovating the house, which i am really happy with, but am now turning my attention to the garden - and to be honest, have no idea where to start, and as budget is tight, need to do the work myself.

The current garden is pretty hideous, a broken down old shed, on a wonky concrete base, and some randomly layed paving slabs, put down on some sort of plastic / polyethylene sheet over sand and various weeds peeking out.

I am taking a week off to tackle this, but having stared at a computer all day trying to find help on tackling this project - i'm stuck, and stuck at some of the most simple aspects. I literally do not know where to start. Ideally i want to clear the whole garden, take down the shed, put gravel down and create something akin to this vibe: goo.gl/images/WwMNcx

I could truely do with someone just giving some good starting tips, maybe how to break down this job!

Thanyou everyone, as you can tell. I'm lost.

Before you do anything have a look at other gardens like yours in the area if you can. Look online, at books, magazines anything that will get your ideas flowing and then you can identify the phases of work that will be needed.

My motto it will always take twice as long as you think because things crop up, set aside a contingency of money in case you need to buy something - you will not be able to do it with no money at all, there is always some charge somewhere even if its only to dump waste.

Now is a great time of year to visit the garden shows and you can get talking to professionals on how you might go about something.
Have lots of fun, and good luck!

Clear everything first, then track the sun at different times of day. Draw out your design, after researching the style you want, placing seating and anything structural where you want it. Think about where you might want large shrubs, trees and put them in your plan.
Measure the actual garden and with a can of spray paint mark out where the main features will be. Then check that the scale it right.
It's better to plant large bushes, trees etc in the Autumn, so bows the time to do the planning, clearing and hard landscaping.

Now's not bows, though bows can look nice in a garden!

Thanks everyone.

One question i have is to do with the fencing - i would ideally like to put up neater fences than the broken down ones already there. Considering i won't own them all - its a terraced property with fences both left right and behind the garden, should i erect fences literally next to the others, thus leaving my neighbours fences intact, but invisible, or should i be asking to remove theirs and replace with my own?

I would also appreciate any thoughts on the best way to remove the concrete under the shed? I would like to have gravel there, so does it need removing in the first place?

Thankyou kindly.

The only way to remove concrete is with a pneumatic drill, just putting gravel on top won't work I'm afraid.
A diagram, with dimensions and which way your garden faces would be a great help.

The first job is clearing the plot, including the concrete. Hire a skip, drill, lump hammer, crow bars and possibly a saw if you don't have access to any. Take a good look at the ground and check that you have no metal poles (shed doors) sticking out of the concrete... metal grinder.
How do I know?
Put up your own fences and don't touch the neighbours', not worth the hassle. However nice they are you will never agree.

If you have side access, it may be worth hiring a man with a mini digger for a day. The waste would be put straight onto a pick up lorry. Compare prices.

I have attempted to remove concrete in our garden, which was the base for a looooong path.

Don't do it yourself!

We found a local builders labourer who does cash work on the weekends. He brought the tools and a great deal of energy and finished in a weekend what would have taken me months. Best couple of hundred quid I've spent on the house/garden.